


More Things in Heaven and Earth

by Stranger



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: F/M, android genders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 00:17:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 42,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8265718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stranger/pseuds/Stranger
Summary: Jupiter Jones inherited Earth, and a lot more, but now she has to manage it.  She finds that she has help.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Like a lot of viewers, I thought _Jupiter Ascending_ told only the first chapter of a larger story. This is another chapter, but not an ending, to the movie's events.

PROLOGUE

A planet-sized storm's red eye glared at Diomika Tsing. Diomika stared back at the gas giant and its red eye. Why had Balem Abrasax built his refinery in a poison-gas hurricane? Had it been for the dramatic atmosphere? Lord Balem was rumored to be eccentric, which of an Entitled meant unrepentantly insane.

"It's destabilized. Sinking fast," announced Gemma Chatterjee, from behind Captain Tsing.

Good riddance, thought Diomika, but no Aegis captain should say that aloud.

"Captain, the gate's open."

Somebody must be alive down there. Diomika hoped the new Abrasax queen, and her Skyjacker champion, would get away from Lord Balem alive. "It's an evacuation," she said, and was proved right as a dozen Abrasax ships sailed out of the red spot and away, ignoring the Aegis cruiser. "Get us down there, Nesh."

Nesh trumpeted approval and the ship moved.

An hour — was it only an hour? — later, Diomika faced the tranquil, cloud-streaked blue sphere of Earth, cleaner than Orous ever had been, while she heard more of the story.

"Balem wanted to kill me, but he wanted the title to Earth first," said the new queen in a smoke-roughened voice, still holding Caine Wise's arm. "We, um, kind of disagreed about it. And then the refinery was breaking up. And Caine caught me and we flew out."

"I'm glad, Your Majesty," said Diomika. "Mr. Wise is most resourceful."

"Really, please just call me Jupiter. I'm not much of a majesty," said their royal guest, following Diomika toward Medical. "I want to see my family now. Please." Mr. Wise followed as well.

Diomika said, "They're here already, your— Jupiter. This way." Two medics were hovering over the nine pallets occupied by Balem's former hostages. "They're all alive and unharmed, but if you agree, they can sleep until we return them to their home."

"Yes, that's good." The queen and owner of Earth gulped when she saw the sleeping Terrsie humans. "Ohh, that's my cousin, and my cousin Mikka and, oh, that's my mother, oh, god, Balem was going to kill her." Jupiter Jones gulped and laid her head close to the sleeping face of a careworn, handsome woman, brushing their cheeks together. "Caine said you got them out while I was fighting Balem. Thank you. Thank you forever, Captain."

"It was my duty. My pleasure." Diomika saw affection and loyalty, incongruous on the smooth Abrasax face. It made the queen look truly young. "Please let Medtech Melzhar treat your burns while you're here."

Queen Jupiter said firmly, "I don't want a Regenex treatment. I'd feel like a cannibal. Anything else you can do, yes."

Melzhar nodded a half-bow. "As Your Majesty wishes." Queen Jupiter drew a breath, then coughed and winced and let Melzhar look at her bruised throat.

Diomika said, "I don't believe Lord Balem has escaped the refinery as yet. Should we expect him?" It was her duty to ask.

"I last saw him falling into the refinery core, just before it exploded," said Jupiter, not sadly, as Melzhar brought out ointment in lieu of healing spray. "I almost fell in too." Her glance at Caine Wise, and his refusal to leave her side, suggested another bond of more than loyalty. "I couldn't let him have Earth. He was going to kill everyone on it."

Ah, thought Diomika. The new queen protects her people. Her family, and her followers, and now her planet. That's a queen I could believe in.

# # #

CHAPTER 1

The owner of Earth was mopping a bathroom floor on which someone had vomited. It was a mess, but as long as there weren't bloodstains, she could cope. Jupiter supposed Katherine had had too many bridal-shower tequila shots, or maybe it was wedding nerves. She did seem to be head over heels for Austin Davis. The bridesmaid dresses were sweet.

A harsh whispering voice said, "Your Majesty," and Jupiter leapt backwards, completely out of the seafoam-blue-and-mirrors bathroom, because the thing that appeared looked like the gray demon aliens that, on TV, kidnapped people and vivisected them, or maybe just killed you if you were in a fertility clinic.

"Majesty, one of your monitor stations is failing. The monitors request to know your will."

"What?" The gray, alien thing was cringing at her in midair, and not waving any pointed implements. "Um, what monitor station?" Jupiter took a firmer grip on her bleach-laden mop, just in case, stepped inside the bathroom again and closed the door. Did Earth have monitor stations? For Balem, or the Legion, or what?

"It orbits the refinery planet. Without the refinery, it is losing power and failing."

The cringing and the whispery voice were even creepier than having these creatures grab at her in a cornfield. Jupiter wondered if she should just tell it to leave and never come back. It might obey her. "So, there's something wrong with this station. Are there people on it? Also, what's your name?" Jupiter hoped Mom and Aunt Nino were still making up the four bedrooms, which this week were all filled with guests and would take longer than usual.

"This one has no name, Majesty. This one's fleet belongs to Abrasax. To you, Majesty."

She guessed it was a keeper. Caine had said they repaired things, as well as doing Balem's dirty work. "Can you fix the station?"

"It is failing, Majesty. Do you choose to abandon it?"

They wanted her to make a _decision_. Jupiter knew even less about space stations, if that's what this was, than about running an interstellar empire. "Uh. Find someone on the station. Is anyone there human, or a, a living being?"

"They are all humans, majesty."

"Okay. Find one of them and ask which of them knows the most about the station. Tell the one who knows the most, that I want him or her to decide what to do. Do what that person says." Someone at the station surely had to know more than Jupiter about whatever problem it was. "That's all."

The keeper cringed again. "Majesty." It stared at her as it faded into invisibility. When it was completely gone, Jupiter opened the bathroom door and suddenly smelled the bleach fumes as they dissipated. Distant voices sounded from the bedroom hallway, Nino asking about pillowcases. Good.

What had that been about? A station on Jupiter-the-planet, left over from the refinery Caine had trashed until it exploded and fell into the Jovian swamp? Monitoring? What? Jupiter shook her head and went back to making sure the bathroom floor was sanitary.

She went over the apartment's second bathroom quickly, trying not to think, but while she wiped down a gold-and-blue shower stall, she wondered suddenly: _One_   of my monitor stations? How many stations are there? Where? That one was near the refinery on Jupiter. Are there others? Are there stations on Earth, around Earth? Monitoring what?

While she scrubbed the sink, she thought: If I own Earth, I can just tell them to stop. She moved to the seafoam-blue toilet and picked up her long brush. Even if she told them to, would the keepers stop? They were "fleets"… like… they weren't like ships… maybe like birds? What did they do when they weren't cleaning up after Skyjacker chases?

"Jupiter! Have you done the bathrooms? We still have the kitchen, and then the Marinsky house this afternoon!"

"Coming," she yelled, and told herself she didn't care what the keepers did, as long as they weren't bothering her.

# # #

Jupiter had vacuumed an acre or so of the Marinskys' carpet and was going over the chairs when another keeper faded into visibility, right in front of her upholstery attachment. "Ung," said Jupiter, and kept the wicked-looking intake pointed at the keeper. "What do you want?"

"Your Majesty, I bring abject apologies from my fleet. The monitor station has failed. It destroyed itself before the crew could evacuate." Fortunately, the whispery voice blended into the vacuum's whooshing, and then she caught up with what the creature had said.

"You mean people died?" said Jupiter, aghast.

"Four humans and one member of my fleet died. I am most sorrowful."

"Oh. I'm sorry, too." Jupiter lowered the vacuum arm, and decided not to turn it off yet. Mom was one room over, polishing mirrors and tabletops in the dining room. "Come this way," she said, and herded the floating keeper and the wheeled vacuum cleaner into the entrance hall, where there was more carpet and a convenient coat closet.

She opened the closet and motioned. "Stay in there while we talk. Can you tell me how many stations like that there are? Are others in danger of failing?"

"Most sorrow, Majesty. All stations near the refinery planet will fail soon, with the refinery gone."

"Those other stations have people on them, is that right?"

"The crews are humans and splices."

"Evacuate all the crews from the stations that are failing. Um, do you need a ship to carry them? Where should they go?" The keeper took on an expression of _exceeds this unit's capabilities_ , so Jupiter pulled a solution out of the same thin air the keeper was standing on. "Can you call an Abrasax ship to carry them? Should I?" The keeper said, very blankly, "Yes, Majesty," and then, tilting its head, "I can ask for a ship, with your permission."

Oh my god, thought Jupiter. I have ships. Somewhere. "You have permission to call for a ship, with a crew, that's able to carry the evacuated people away from those stations and take them to whatever planet or place they tell you. Go do it before anyone else dies."

The keeper vanished from the closet, and Jupiter carried on vacuuming the front hall, hoping nothing else would appear today. What were these stations, and ships, and keepers and… and how did all this come out of her owning Earth?

# # #

An external portal alert pinged. The alert screen at Diomika's station showed that someone had appeared via portal near the largest planet, the one where there wasn't a refinery any more. An Abrasax ship, small and barely armed. Diomika glanced at Gemma. "Hail them and ask their business."

Gemma sent the message, and opened a holo window for the reply. "Abrasax Ferry F-Alpha-3," said a vulpine-splice pilot, rapidly. "By request of the Abrasax primary, to rescue personnel from research and monitoring stations in distress."

"Aegis Captain Tsing here. Which Abrasax primary?" asked Diomika.

The pilot's red-furred ears twitched. "Pilot Raynou here. By request of Queen Seraphi's Recurrence. I understand it's urgent."

Diomika had noted the outlier stations' power signature decay, but there had been no communications, and her mission was with Jupiter Jones, on Earth. "Yes, please proceed," she said. The holo disappeared and she told Gemma, "Monitor, and inform me if they approach Earth."

"Ma'am." Gemma Chatterjee turned back to her desk and the dozen open channels she managed effortlessly.

An hour later, Gemma said, "Ma'am. The Abrasax Ferry has portalled to Earth orbit, and sends us a request."

The holo window opened again, to show the fox splice and a pale rat splice she remembered as Lord Balem's obnoxious messenger. "Abrasax Ferry to Aegis Cruiser."

"Do you need assistance?"

"One of my passengers, Mr. Night, has a request for you."

Diomika's eyebrows rose. Mr. Night had little standing on which to request anything of her, and surely knew it. Still, Balem Abrasax was gone and the splice was a refugee now. "Mr. Night?"

"Captain," he said, as oily as before. Diomika wondered if Lord Balem had chosen him for the grating persona or for his brains. Probably both. "I represent the surviving personnel of the Abrasax Regenex refinery in this system. One research team, three humans, ask that they be taken to Earth to consult with the new Entitled of this system as soon as may be arranged. I would prefer to stay with them."

"Why might that be, Mr. Night?" She let a touch of impatience show.

"My lord or his body has not been recovered. I would like to remain in the system as long as there is doubt as to his fate."

"Lord Balem was last seen falling into an exploding reactor core, which was itself falling into the lower atmosphere of a gas giant. He's probably component atoms by now."

"Even so," said the irritating voice, after a brief hitch of breath. Could he actually be mourning Lord Balem? Could anyone? "I also feel I should supervise the researchers, who are valuable assets. The new Entitled may not appreciate their worth, and I would prefer to ensure that they find postings that do not waste their talents."

He no doubt hoped to sell them as a team to the highest bidder. Abrasax internal business was not, strictly speaking, Diomika's job, but perhaps she could see that the new Entitled got word of it. Jupiter Jones deserved to know what was going on.

"Are you asking that the team and yourself be quartered at an Aegis outpost while they resolve their questions with the new Entitled? Since any other residence on Earth by persons not of Earth is illegal?"

Mr. Night made a tiny bow which managed to be both obsequious and smug. "That is exactly what I hoped to request of you, Captain."

"Granted," said Diomika. "The outpost with guest facilities is on the small continent called Australia. You may contact the Abrasax primary from there, if she allows it. Please tell Marshal Ursula what you need." That would keep a slippery piece of work like Chicanery Night under Aegis eyes, and the Marshal would keep all of them contained in the relative isolation of the outpost without ruffling more fur or feathers than necessary. "Mr. Night, Pilot Raynou. Best speed to you."

The holo window closed. "Chatterjee, please notify Marshal Ursula of these four guests, and suggest that she notify the Entitled Abrasax primary of their presence."

# # #

After some remarks about her "invisible boyfriend," from her cousins and Aunt Nino, Jupiter decided she really needed some time with the boyfriend, and excused herself from an uneaten dinner to her improvised rooftop observatory. She knew they all loved her, but she just couldn't talk to Mom or Uncle Vassily about being kidnapped (twice!) and declared queen of Earth. They wouldn't believe it. Most of the time, _she_   didn't believe it.

She pointed her telescope at Mars as it emerged from the twilight. She thought she could see one of Mars' zippy little moons if she held very, very still, but Caine interrupted her concentration, thank goodness, right on schedule. "You look like you're thinking about something."

Jupiter smiled at him. "Right now, you. But there's another thing or two."

He slipped an arm around her, warm in the evening air. "What are you looking at? Through the telescope?"

"Mars, and maybe one of its moons."

"Mars, ah, the fourth planet here. Does it have moons?"

Jupiter giggled and slid an arm around Caine, for warmth of course, and they were kissing like lovers, right there under the stars and the distant Sears Tower.

"This is wonderful," said Jupiter finally, when they stopped for a breather. "It's like flying."

"We could do that, if you like." His wings stirred under his jacket. "Too."

"Oh, yes, later. But something weird happened today."

"What happened?" Suddenly he was very focused, listening. To her. Wow.

"A gray, um, keeper, just appeared from the air, while I was working. It didn't hurt me. In fact, it acted like I was in charge, and called me 'Majesty.'"

Caine relaxed, a little. "Ah. I suppose they know by now that you're Earth's Entitled. Officially."

"I guess. But, it said there was a, a monitoring station that was failing. Near the refinery. On Jupiter? Later another keeper appeared — it's kind of creepy the way they do that—"

"Keepers cloak themselves when Earth humans are likely to see them."

"I guess that makes sense. Kind of. There was a lot more, but I didn't even know there are things besides Earth that I… have to make decisions about. Are there monitor stations, or any stations, near Earth? Or other stuff?" She gave him a pleading look. Nobody had briefed her on how to _manage_   Earth. And whatever else.

He frowned, not at her. "Owning a planet like Earth means you own its whole system."

Jupiter felt her eyes going wide. "I own the sun? The solar system? Ohmigod, do I own the Oort Cloud? How far out does this title go?" She wanted to laugh, but it wasn't funny. It could be true. Balem had had that nightmare refinery on Jupiter-the-planet, when he'd owned Earth.

Caine ducked his head. "The Aegis keeps some outposts like Stinger's, in your service. Captain Tsing's ship is still here, in your service."

"Can I just tell them all to leave?"

"The Aegis cruiser is here to protect you and enforce your title, if necessary. The Marshals' outposts… Stinger knows about them. We could take a," he glanced down at her, "flying trip to see him. Your Majesty."

More flying, with Caine. Oh, yes. "Yes. I bet I can beat you there!" She and her flying boots were off the rooftop, streaking west over Chicago, before the last word was out of her mouth.

Caine, with his wings _and_   boots, caught up with her halfway there, and landed in front of Stinger's repaired house (and the beehives) at least a minute before she did. Amid a cloud of respectful bees, Jupiter gave him a victory kiss before she greeted Kiza and Stinger.

# # #

"The Aegis has outposts near the major population centers," said Stinger. "Cities, you understand, are the most likely targets for Entitled poaching or other destructive activity that the keepers might have to repair."

Jupiter sat on a raveling wicker chair with a take-out burger and fries on her lap, trying to make sense of the information. "How many outposts? What about space stations? Where do the keepers stay, anyway?"

"There are seven Aegis outposts, some larger than this one, on Earth. Space stations for monitoring, or laboratory work, or anything else, are Abrasax properties. The Legion and Aegis don't intrude on those unless invited." He rubbed the bridge of his nose with the heel of his hand, his hard face softened by lamplight. "That is, not usually. Captain Tsing made the call to follow you and Caine to the refinery during… extraordinary circumstances."

"Oh."

"The captain put her career on the line for you," said Kiza, and popped a french fry covered in mayonnaise into her mouth. "Your Majesty."

"Uh, I see. And 'Jupiter' is fine. Please."

"It was her duty to support you," said Caine, after swallowing the last bite of his second cheeseburger. "She put her heart into it. Her crew did, too."

"Well." Jupiter felt a little overwhelmed. "At least I said thank you." She looked around the seeming farmhouse's front room. "Thank you, all of you."

Stinger just nodded. Caine's grin was almost shy, in a way that conveyed his own meaning of "Your Majesty." Kiza picked up another fry and said, "We'd do it again, Jupiter."

Everyone sat for a moment while Jupiter felt embarrassed. Then Stinger said, "The keepers are something else. The lot of 'em here work for Abrasax. A keeper fleet sells its service as a unit, to a House."

Jupiter leaned forward. "What does Abrasax own here, besides Earth? Am I responsible for it all? I thought I was saving the Earth _from_   Abrasax, not taking over as the new Abrasax."

"Well…" said Caine.

"You kind of are," said Kiza. "The bees knew who you were."

"And bees don't lie," added Stinger. "Jupiter, Majesty, you need to know more than a couple of old Legionnaires can tell you. I can give you a contact to the Aegis ship, to Captain Tsing, and one to the outpost in Australia that's housing some scientists rescued from stations after the refinery explosion."

Jupiter swallowed. "You're right. I need to talk to them."

"I can put contact links on your phone."

Silently, Jupiter fished her prized smartphone out of a pocket and passed it to him. He reached into a pile of clutter behind the take-out cartons and extracted a similar, larger phone, and did something that made them both project 3D schematics into the air. Information sparkled and flowed for a moment, and the schematics disappeared. "There you are. Outgoing contacts. They'll update to two-way if you use them." He handed back the phone.

"Thank you," said Jupiter. "I'm not sure what I need. I don't know what to ask, even."

"Look at it this way," said Stinger. "You can't possibly do worse than Balem Abrasax."

# # #

Jupiter made it home, via Caine and flying boots, in time to reassure her mother that she wasn't staying out late, well, not _very_   late, on a work night. She stared into the dark for far too long when she should have been sleeping, wondering how the keepers lived, and what evacuated scientists (humans? dinosaurs? humans spliced with lab rats?) she might talk to, if she could find the time and the right questions. Could she keep Earth isolated from the Entitled and their Regenex industry?

Did she want all of it to leave her alone? She liked Caine a lot, and he was a splice, a wolf splice. She didn't want him to fly away to the Legion and never come back.

She didn't want anyone to treat him like he wasn't quite human.

Something from inside her head said, sly as a keeper appearing, Earth is only one planet. What about the thousand other planets full of humans, Terrsies, that'll be harvested next week or next year?

# # #

The next morning, as Jupiter scrubbed sinks and tile and toilets and a bidet in the Adderly condo two floors below Katherine's, a keeper surprised her. Again. It stepped out of the mirror, as far as she could tell, and said, "Majesty," low-voiced and with the same cringing little aerial bow as before. That was another thing. She didn't _want_   it to call her by name, but the 'Majesty' business was ridiculous.

She'd think about it later. "What now?" she muttered. Carefully. Aunt Nino was in the very next room, talking to herself about fabric softener and Virgo while she folded sheets for the linen cupboard.

The apparition-like thing held out a flat square object… a sheaf like the ones on Orous. "Messages," it said, still quietly. Maybe the previous one had passed the word about hiding in the closet. Jupiter pulled off her caustic-laden rubber gloves to accept the sheaf, which displayed a list of messages, in English. Five messages, mostly in English.

When she looked up, the keeper had disappeared. Well, good. She checked her phone. No messages, no texts, one email from Best Buy. It looked liked the phone contacts really only went one-way, at least for now, which was a relief.

The first two messages were from Chicanery Night and Lyrica Daelos. Did she know these people? Did they know her? Her thumbprint opened the first one while she was handling the sheaf and it displayed English text: "To Abrasax Primary, Recurrence of Her Majesty Seraphi. Chicanery Night mourns the passing of Lord Balem Abrasax in the depths of Earth system's fifth planet, if it may be proven. In that event, his duty advances to Your Majesty. What are Your Majesty's commands?" The message header included a place name: Ballarat, Australia, Earth.

Stinger had said there was an outpost in Australia. It was a condolence message. Kind of. Maybe not, thought Jupiter, re-reading. He worked for Balem, and now he wants to work for me. I'll think about that later, too.

The second message, also from Ballarat, was addressed merely to Abrasax Entitled. Lyrica Daelos offered thanks for the evacuation of herself and her colleagues. She regretted that her laboratory and material samples had been lost with the laboratory station. She would welcome a review of her research results with the new Entitled, as the recent data merited further study and promised profitable and interesting developments if pursued before the impending harvest. She remained Abrasax' most loyal and grateful supporter.

Jupiter set the sheaf down before it could open another message.

Ugh, thought Jupiter. Lyrica Daelos assumed Jupiter was like Balem. She, if it was she, was researching… something about Regenex? Something to do with the harvest that wasn't going to happen. Were these people in Australia waiting for her? To do what?

Okay, she'd think about it all. Later today. She pocketed the sheaf and pulled on her cleaning gloves again. She still had to do the mirrors.

On the way out of the building, rejoicing at a rare two-hour break between jobs today, she heard, "Oh, Jupiter, over here!" from the lobby coffee bar. Katherine waved at her from a postage-stamp table, all high spirits. "Miranda, this is Jupiter Jones. Jupiter, this is Austin's cousin Miranda. We went to school together! She's my maid of honor! Miree, I was telling you about Jupiter. She picked out the dress for me that made Austin propose. Like a fairy godmother."

Miranda, a brunette exuding polished wealth, put down her cup and gave Jupiter a friendly, open smile. "Nothing wrong with godmothers," she said, less breathless than Katherine. "I like your name. I'm in the astronomy program at Columbia." She was obviously prouder of that than of being a bridesmaid.

"Congratulations," said Jupiter. "But you must know Miranda is a moon—"

Miranda snickered, her face a bit pinker. "Ah-ha. The undergrad boys never let me forget I'm named after a _moon_   of _Uranus_."

Katherine snickered too. Jupiter, caught unawares, gasped with laughter. "Oh no! I never thought of it that way."

"As if nobody ever read Shakespeare, or had a great-aunt," concluded Miranda indignantly.

"I completely believe you have a great-aunt," said Jupiter. "My father was an astronomer, and I've wondered what he liked about Jupiter to choose the name. Has it done anything interesting lately?"

"Well, it's funny that you ask, because someone picked up an anomaly in one of the outer Jovian moons' orbits, just yesterday, and everyone's running in circles, multiple circles, in _concentric spheres_ , trying to figure it out."

While Katherine giggled, Jupiter shut her mouth and hoped the cold wave that swept over her didn't mean she was turning white. Miranda went on, oblivious, "But of course, all those outer moons are captured asteroids, and you're never sure there's not another one around somewhere to distort the predictions."

"How many moons are there?" asked Katherine, sounding almost interested.

"Sixty…" said Jupiter, "or so."

"Sixty-seven," said Miranda, grinning at her, delighted. "Maybe tomorrow it'll be sixty-eight. At least they can't name it Miranda. That's taken."

Jupiter tried to grin back. "I hope Miranda has a good stable orbit, at least. It's been nice to meet you. Katherine, good luck for the wedding. I'm sorry, I've got an errand." She backed away, turned, and all but ran out the building's nearest door.

How many of Jupiter's moons hid Abrasax stations or other meddling? What had happened to the station that failed? How long before some astronomer figured out it wasn't natural? And then what?

Lincoln Park was across the street, lushly green in the late summer heat. Jupiter sat down under a tree and pulled out her phone. She needed advice from someone who understood the situation. Whatever it was.

She touched the new contact on her phone's list, "Tsing" with no picture. A moment later, a decisive, already-familiar voice said, "Captain Tsing here. Is this Jupiter? Ma'am."

"Yes." She tried not to sound as scared as she was. "Captain, I hope you might give me some information about Abrasax and the Aegis around Earth and the solar system. Do you have time for that? Now? I don't want to interrupt anything important."

Tsing's voice came back, and a picture of Captain Tsing, in a futuristic ergonomic chair in a room full of holograph effects, appeared. "Jupiter, _you're_   important. I'm here to ensure your safety, and I would be happy to answer any questions I can."

"Thank you." Jupiter abandoned the effort to sound calm. "I don't know what Abrasax had in this system besides Earth. There was more than the refinery, wasn't there? I've had messages that other stations were affected by the… the destruction there. I think the Abrasax keepers are…" _freaking me out_   "…just trying to keep things going, but…" How could she ask about _everything?_

"Would you like an overview, to start?"

"Yes, please."

"The Aegis exists to safeguard property rights for the Entitled, as recorded on Orous, during Great House disputes and other transitions, like yours. It serves all the Houses, not any single one, to prevent destruction by force."

"Okay." That kind of made sense.

"We're here now to protect Earth and its rightful owner, you, from Entitled who may claim it in error."

That kind of didn't, because how could Earth have an owner, but everyone from Orous just said things like that, not as jokes. Okay. And "in error" was polite teacher-talk, or cop-talk, for "against the rules," but the cop was being polite on her side. It was a strange feeling.

"Do you, does the Aegis, do this for all the, um, Terrsie planets?"

"We do when it's needed." Captain Tsing smiled, happy and fierce. "Most Houses maintain ships and defense measures of their own, but," her smile broadened, "carrying defense beyond their own territory is grounds for Aegis intervention."

"Wow," said Jupiter, in discovery. "You like your job."

"Indeed," said the Captain. "This has been a particularly rewarding assignment."

"I want to thank you again for following me to Balem's refinery and bringing Caine, and getting us out again."

"Mr. Wise did that, but I was very glad to assist."

"Captain, I need to know a lot more about what I should be doing, if I own Earth. Caine said… I own the whole system? And I've been getting messages about other stations…"

# # #

Diomika Tsing heard the near-panic in the Abrasax queen's voice. A Terrsie Recurrence discovering she was expected to be a Great House primary must feel disoriented, at best. Jupiter had faced down Lord Balem, on his ground. That spoke well for her courage, but what would she do with the power and responsibility she didn't yet know she had?

She'd found a way to ask, at least. Diomika said, to the young face framed by grass and trees richer and wilder than an Orous garden, "Besides the installation on the largest planet, Abrasax had four stations outside that planet's atmosphere, among the moons. There are others, but they're not in immediate danger."

"Oh, good. What about the four that… Had?"

"They depended on the refinery for power, and they couldn't maintain function after it was destroyed. Those were Abrasax property. An Abrasax ship came in to evacuate the crews."

"Oh. That was my fault. The keepers asked me what to do, and I said to rescue them and take them home."

"It was a very good move," said Diomika. "You may want to do some follow-up on the rescue. Has Marshal Ursula or Mr. Night been in contact with you?"

"They sent me a sheaf with messages. From Australia, it said."

Score one for the Marshal. "I hope you'll talk to them, to get their view of the situation. Another resource is the _Entitled Code and Conduct Guide_. I know it's rather dry reading, but it has a lot of detail on the laws that apply."

"I can't ignore all this, can I?" said Jupiter. "I really wanted to just tell them I own the Earth and they should go away now, but there's more, isn't there." She said it flatly, knowing the answer.

"There's a lot more," said Diomika. "You don't have to do what Lord Balem would have, but you have to do something. You can't give up the Entitlement without someone like Titus Abrasax taking it."

Queen Jupiter looked down and back up, steadier and more direct. "I will like hell let that creep have anything of mine."

Aha. Diomika felt herself smiling. "Ma'am. What do you want for Earth?"

"I want it not to be harvested. Humans aren't a cash crop. I want everyone to just… live."

"That's a trade off. You know about Regenex, and it's used for medical healing as well as life extension. Not harvesting any planets means more people, like the crew of this ship, will die of trauma instead of old age."

"I want… I still want everyone to live. Your crew, and the splices, and everyone on the seeded farm planets. I don't know how to make it happen, but that's what I _want_."

The declaration, the flushed face and shining eyes, left Diomika breathless. The passion, as much as the naiveté, was stunning. She wanted to give this Queen all the lives in the universe, starting with her own.

Jupiter said, "Can you… I need a lot more information. Could I talk to you again later? After I've thought about it more? Maybe I could get advice from some of your people, if that's easier."

"Of course. I'd especially suggest you meet with Gemma Chatterjee, the senior communications and data officer. She has an excellent understanding of these issues. And I personally am always at your service, Ma'am." She inclined her head, acknowledging not the title, but the effort to fulfill it. "Jupiter."

# # #

Jupiter promised herself that she would really read the _Code and Conduct Guide_   right away, or at least give it a better skim-through than she had the first time. That took up her evening and convinced her (again) that the Entitled thought they were far too good for the common people. Most of the _Code_   covered interactions between Entitled individuals and Houses. The sections about Entitled interaction with Seconds and Terrsies generally laid out Entitled privileges and some few exceptions. For instance, Seconds who were members of the Aegis counted as honorary First Estate members while performing their duties. Thus, the reader was cautioned, an Entitled couldn't over-rule them as a right.

Terrsies had nearly no rights, but they were very, very protected from danger or even contact from First and Second Estate individuals. Except of course from the Entitled who owned them. The whole thing made Jupiter sick.

In the morning Mom said, in the half hour they had for coffee and breakfast, "Jupiter, how long were you reading about Harry Potter last night? I hope you had enough sleep."

She'd found one of the _Harry Potter_   books yesterday for fifty cents, in a used bookstore's falling-apart bin, as camouflage. "I had to stop and go to sleep after a couple of chapters. I don't know what happens after that."

"Harry Potter wins in the end," said Aunt Nino. "It's fun. You know, very American."

"Nino," said Mom. "Let Jupiter read it for herself."

Jupiter smiled at Mom. "Thank you. I'm glad Aunt Nino thinks it's good." She really liked her family a lot more than she'd thought before, except maybe Vladie. And she hadn't given up on him, either.

# # #

They were at the Ehler house all morning. It wasn't that big a house, but Mom had to clean the oven (for an extra fee, so it wasn't all bad), which took time. So Mom was busy and Aunt Nino still in the laundry room, when a tiny woman with pigeon feathers where her hair should be appeared in a puff of breeze and walked toward Jupiter on splayed little pigeon feet. Jupiter blinked. The half-size woman had feathers like clothes, all over her body. Fortunately, she didn't make noise on the bedroom carpet, and didn't even leave prints. Huh.

Jupiter blinked again and backed into the bathroom, where she'd already started work. If this was going to be another conversation about who owned the Earth and why, she wanted a closed door between it and the rest of the house. The pigeon splice followed.

Jupiter picked up her scrub brush and cleaner bucket, just in case, and said, "You're not supposed to be on Earth at all, you know." _Code and Conduct_   had made that pretty clear, for obvious splices.

Then things got slightly weird. The pigeon woman gave a scratchy cough and said, in Kalique's voice, "This should make it easier for us to talk, dear Jupiter." The splice's feather-edged hand placed a glittery thing about the size of a walnut on the counter, and backed out the door. Without opening it. Jupiter stared, opened the perfectly solid door, and caught the last swirls of a closing portal and another breeze that made the sheer curtains tremble for a few seconds. That was against the _Code_   too, but Kalique could probably get away with it.

"Um," said Jupiter. "What?" She went back into the bathroom, brush in hand, to stare at the thing that looked like a Fabergé egg studded with rubies amid swirling enamel work. "What does it do?"

"It's a holo-link," said Kalique's voice. The air over the counter turned into an image of Kalique wearing pink gauze and rubies, her hair in a fantastic high-rise arrangement. So, it was an ordinary day on Cerise, Jupiter assumed.

Jupiter, feeling like her eyes were bugged out, closed the door again. Kalique continued seamlessly, like a recording, "Dear Jupiter, Let me begin by saying I'm delighted that you've claimed your inheritance. At the same time, I'm so very sorry that your entrance into the family was marked by Balem's passing. It's sad to lose a brother, or a son." Her eyes were artistically moist for a moment. She sniffed delicately, once, and went on, "I regret that he revoked his will recently in a fit of pique. The surviving Abrasax primaries need to arrange for management of his properties until the Hall of Titles confirms his estate disposition. Can you attend a conference to negotiate what needs to be done?"

Kalique's smiling image waited. That seemed to be the end of the message. Jupiter dropped her brush, then snatched it back up and moved to the sink, which was ready for scrubbing. She was talking mostly to herself as she said, "Yeah. He passed, all right. Do I need to confirm it? Wait, is someone going to blame me for Balem going crazy?"

"Oh," said Kalique, brightly responsive, "of course not. But, you can bring as many advocates as you want." Jupiter looked up and met dark, smiling eyes. They were the same color as her own, even. It wasn't like the Entitled were wrong about the genetic side of things. It was just that making it a religion was creepy. Kalique continued, holding her gaze, "We'll need to work together to keep Titus from grabbing everything. He runs through a lot of income, and he needs watching over."

In Jupiter's opinion, Titus needed a kick in the balls. "I think you're right about Titus. I can meet with you, that is, I could have a… a holo-link conference with you, but just now I'm… doing something time-sensitive." She waved the cleaning brush and spattered ammonia drops through the impervious floating image.

"What _is_   that? It looks like process art."

"Close," said Jupiter, airily desperate. "It's a hobby, practical chemistry. Please excuse me, the precipitate is dissolving." She kept brushing at the sink, which had been rendered pristinely white and toothpaste-less by its long soak in industrial-grade cleaner. "Your messenger was charming, but it's, um, inadvisable to send that one to Earth. The humans on Earth are very curious. It's dangerous for splices that don't look like humans."

"Oh, you can just chime the link now, when you need to contact me," said Kalique with winsome sincerity. "Call me when you're not busy with the chemistry art, and we'll set a meeting time. I'm so glad you're taking your role in the family!" The image winked out, revealing clean marble and clean mirror-glass over the now very clean sink.

Jupiter looked at the Fabergé gadget for a moment before she packed up her supplies and took off her gloves. When she scooped it off the counter, touching it didn't set anything off. Okay, she'd have to figure it out, if she wanted to talk to Kalique again. If she did want to.

She put it in her jacket with her phone and the sheaf.

# # #

After the third house of the day, on the way home, Jupiter said, "I want to take my boyfriend out for the evening. I'll be back by ten o'clock, or else in time to make breakfast. I need to talk to him."

"Oh dear," said her mother. "Oh, Jupiter, I hope you'll be all right. You're too old to have a bedtime, but you do need sleep."

"I know, Mom. I love you both."

"Good luck with the boy," said Aunt Nino. Ask him if he can remember his birthday." The family thought Caine was another undocumented immigrant, which was kind of right.

"I'll do that." She got out of the Bolotnikov car at Humboldt Park and called Caine, who appeared minutes later. Jupiter pulled him into an embrace right there, in the tree shade between the lagoon and the tennis courts. He wasn't from Earth, but he was on her side, and his welcome kiss made her hope for more.

They bought sandwiches and then ice cream cones, which Caine had adopted as his most favorite thing after Jupiter, and walked around the lagoon, in something like outdoor privacy.

"Kalique sent me a message today," said Jupiter, through the aftertaste of sweet, cold vanilla.

"What did she say?" asked Caine.

"She wanted to set up a meeting because Balem died, to manage his property."

"She's pushing you," said Caine. "She's assuming you'll do what she suggests."

"What do you mean?" asked Jupiter, because all Kalique had assumed was that Jupiter didn't know squat about managing an intergalactic empire, which was true.

"Your Majesty, you are the senior Abrasax primary. The queen. You decide who manages Abrasax property. Naturally, the queen's children may have a great deal of influence, but your word is their law."

"Uhhh," said Jupiter, feeling her mouth hang open. No one else had been quite so blunt about her role. "Really?" She righted her ice-cream cone from where it was dripping onto the grass. The _Code_   hadn't said this in so many words, although the way it phrased things sort of skipped a lot.

"Lady Kalique enjoyed being the Abrasax queen. If you aren't taking up the role, she'll want to go on being the royal figurehead. She sure liked the privileges and the display. She can probably run the family business without Lord Balem, if she has to."

"The family business… That's making Regenex, isn't it? From lots of planets, not just Earth?"

"Yes," said Caine, gently.

"Oh." Jupiter thought for a moment of the world of palaces and gowns and immortality bathing pools that made Kalique Abrasax beautiful. "Do you think I should do all that? Be the queen, like Kalique?"

"Only if you want to," said Caine. "But I would far rather have your eyes on me than hers."

Ah-ha. "She thought you were good-looking. You are, you know."

"I am pleased to find favor in Your Majesty's eyes," said Caine.

"So, you like it when I," Jupiter swallowed, "look at you, and, um, want you."

He flushed. "Oh, yes. I want… only whatever Your Majesty wants."

She wanted him, all right. She hoped she was reading it right that he really did want the same. "Okay," she said. "For the record, Abrasax owes me. Titus owes me for that awful fake wedding, and Balem owes me big time. I need to figure out how to get what I want, since the queen thing gives me an in." She looked down at her wrist with its shimmering Sigil of Entitlement. "But," she linked that arm with Caine's and offered him her ice cream to lick. "But first, can you take me to that place where we were after the clinic, the room with the great view? If that's where you've been staying? Do you have a bed?"

Caine grinned, vanilla-mouthed, and she could see his wings quivering under his jacket. "We can only get into that safe room by air. Through the windows. Would you like me to carry you?"

Jupiter grinned back. "Catch me, and you can carry me." She handed him the cone and lifted off on her boots, but paused to watch him finish the ice cream in a single mouthful. Then she streaked away toward Lake Michigan.

He caught her before she crossed the river, and she giggled in his arms, feeling the lifting beat of his wings surround them both. They hovered beside the Tower, and then they zipped through the window as if it were air, and then Caine knelt and put her down on a neatly-made, floor-level bed. "How," he inquired, husky-voiced, "may I serve Your Majesty?"

"Wow," said Jupiter, shakily. "I think this is where I ask what you'd like first?"

"Your Majesty has given me infinite gifts already." His eyes still held hers.

She caved. "Well, if I'm running this show, start by undressing me."

His mouth opened in a smile, and finally he looked down her body, openly appreciative.

Things only got better from there.

# # #

Jupiter woke to the twinkling cityscape below, faint stars above, and inner satisfaction. "Let's do that again," she said. "Soon." She felt the warm presence spooned around her curl a little closer, but she fell asleep again before she could move.

# # #

The next time she woke, still warm and satisfied, she remembered that she was going to make Abrasax pay. Somehow. She was going to keep all the Terrsie planets from being harvested, and find some other way to heal people when they needed it. Terrsies were good at that, since _they_   didn't have Regenex. There had to be a way.

Caine moved behind her. "My queen…" He was sleepy, too.

"Does that mean I can call you my skyjacker?" She felt slow, but awake now.

"If it pleases you."

"You please me," she said. "A lot." Her phone made a jingle of arpeggios, her alarm sound, from her neatly-folded jeans beside the bed. "It's ten o'clock."

"Does that mean you have to leave?"

"I don't have to go home yet. I think I'm awake now." She stretched, still happy. "Do you know if the Aegis ship is on Chicago time? I think I should ask Captain Tsing, and maybe some of her people, for advice about Kalique. Is it too late to do that now?"

"Captain Tsing would make time for you at any hour."

"I still don't want to wake people up if I don't have to."

Caine freed a hand from between their bodies to touch his ear, activating some contact. "Caine Wise to Aegis duty officer. What's the ship time now? … No, no problem, just an inquiry from Her Majesty. Would Captain Tsing have an hour for an informal meeting? Her Majesty has received communications from Abrasax that raise questions that may interest the Aegis." He listened for a moment. "Right, and thank you. At this location."

"That was fast," said Jupiter.

"The ship is keeping local time, since you're staying in this one city. No problem. We'll have a grav-beam in, ahhh, _now_." A faint column of blue sparkles eased into existence outside the window. Just like at the beginning of this crazy change in Jupiter's life.

"I'm going to use your bathroom for a couple of minutes, first," said Jupiter, demurely. She washed and dressed quickly, and waited while Caine did the same. Maybe a lycantant could smell her tiniest trace, and if it was Caine, that was fine. She didn't need to announce what they'd been doing to everyone else.

A moment later, Caine gestured out the window, which obligingly dissolved. "Shall we?" Hand in hand they stepped into thin air above the city and rose upward as if air-traffic regulations didn't exist, and five minutes later they were in the Aegis ship.

# # #

Captain Tsing welcomed her to the ship, her smile broadening when she saw Jupiter wearing the plain Aegis-style jacket she'd been given. It had seemed appropriate, and also, all her stuff was in the pockets. Jupiter didn't know if it was invisible tech or good luck, but the jacket was always comfortable, no matter what she was wearing. She returned the smile. "Thank you, Captain."

Tsing introduced two of the people Jupiter remembered having seen on the ship before. "Phylo Percadium, my first officer," said the Captain, "of House Kebele." A man with a light-brown face and dark hair showing artistic silver streaks, stepped forward and bowed. "Gemma Chatterjee, communications and data officer." The silver-and-white woman nodded solemnly.

Jupiter nodded. "Jupiter Jones." She looked at Percadium. "House Kebele?"

"I share in the First Estate by courtesy, Your Majesty," said Percadium, "through my father. The Kebele primary is a very distant relation, and," he made a polite sound that was not quite a cough, "would not hesitate to tell you so."

"I'm pleased to meet you," said Jupiter, and glanced at Chatterjee, trying not to stare. "Both. Um, may I ask… ?"

"Please do," said the woman.

"I hope you'll excuse me for not knowing some things, like, are you an android, and what is it polite to call you?"

Chatterjee smiled back, not at all mechanical. "I'm an android, Your Majesty, with augmented data reception and storage. Chatterjee would be correct, but I prefer Gemma, if you want to use that."

"Of course," said Jupiter. "I know 'your majesty' is formal and all, but I'd really prefer 'Jupiter'."

"Yes, Jupiter, Ma'am."

Jupiter supposed that was the best she could hope for.

The captain's office had chairs that adjusted to whoever was sitting, and holographic animated decor that might be art or, for all Jupiter knew, might be data read-outs.

Jupiter started by fumbling in her jacket for one of the sheaves she'd been given at the Hall of Titles. "One thing, is that I want Caine Wise as my official Legion guard. Could I request that? Do I need more than one?"

"The usual complement is twelve," said Tsing. "Of course any Legionnaire you request by name will be prioritized. If I might suggest… ?"

"Yes, please."

"Caine Wise may want to choose his team."

Jupiter looked at Caine, who blinked a few times, then nodded. "If Your Majesty would leave it to me." He took charge of the sheaf.

The answers to the rest of Jupiter's questions somehow left her with larger questions and more problems.

"I think," said Tsing, after Gemma had shown Jupiter how to make the jeweled holo-link replay her conversation with Kalique, "we can assume Kalique Abrasax is playing some game, but what?"

Gemma said, quite seriously, "Lady Kalique is saying that she's prepared to cooperate with you, Ma'am, if you cooperate with her. Could you work with her as an ally? Always remembering that she will be thinking of her own interests."

Jupiter thought of the rejuvenation bath, which had cost thousands of lives as human as her own. _All you have to do is close your eyes_ , Kalique had said, at her alcazar. "I don't know yet. I don't exactly trust the Abrasax family."

"You are one," said Phylo. "Ma'am."

"That's some kind of accident, just genes lining up."

Gemma Chatterjee shook her head. "I might agree—"

"You'd better not," said Captain Tsing. "The Entitled believe genes are destiny."

"— if it wouldn't be futile," finished Chatterjee. She and Tsing exchanged a glance, as if this was old ground between them.

"What else do Entitled believe?" asked Jupiter, fascinated.

"In bees," said Phylo. "In matriarchal organizations with a queen at the top and a lot of worker drones doing the labor."

"That sounds… matriarchal? Really?"

"Every Great House has a queen, and only her children inherit," said Tsing. "It's, well, biological, but that's how they do it. Second Estate families are more varied."

"Huh. Bees," said Jupiter. It made no more sense than it had in Stinger Apini's house.

"With or without bees," said Phylo, "House Abrasax has some very urgent problems, as Lady Kalique knows."

"Titus Abrasax was planning to kill me. Balem Abrasax was last seen trying to kill me, but he fell into a refinery explosion before he could finish."

Caine, who had elected to stand behind Jupiter's chair, growled audibly.

"Quite," said Tsing. "I have reported that his actions included illegal trespass, lethal threats, and appropriation of Jupiter's property."

That led into an explanation of Orous' Commonwealth bureaucracy, which was apparently intended to regulate the Great Houses' activities, without forbidding anything outright.

"The Hall of Titles was pretty intimidating, to tell the truth. I'm not sure I want to go back there." Everyone laughed, even Caine.

"You don't have to visit it again, but you'll need an advocate, or more than one, to deal with it," said Tsing.

"They assigned me one before. He got the job done." Advocate Bob had been weird, but better than anything else in the place. "What did you think of him?"

"It seemed efficient and resourceful," said Gemma.

"Yes, I noticed that he… Did you say 'it'?"

"Androids are ungendered unless they choose otherwise. I decided to be female during my training."

"Okay." Advocate Bob hadn't really looked like a Bob, come to think of it.

Phylo said, "A House primary normally employs or owns several specialized advocates. An estate advocate can estimate what the Hall of Titles will eventually say about Lord Balem's holdings. A redress advocate will negotiate reparations for insults and other damages from Lord Titus and from Lord Balem's estate. Lord Balem's estate might counter-file, claiming that you caused his death, although if he has no valid will it's less likely."

"Um," said Jupiter, wide-eyed. "More than one advocate? Do I need all that?"

"Lady Kalique will certainly have her own advocates at a House meeting."

Gemma caught Tsing's eye, and moved to the office desk. She touched something and the desk turned into a holographic light-projection of itself. Jupiter stared. "That's a 'Wow!' moment."

Gemma fiddled at the desk console for a moment, tapped one of her implants, listened, and looked back at the displays. "Queen Seraphi Abrasax employed multiple advocates, of course. Since her death, one alcazar remains in her name. It continues to house an archivist advocate, and some other staff." She looked up at Jupiter. "That's very likely to be an alcazar Seraphi set aside for you, her Recurrence. It's on Orous."

Jupiter didn't want an alcazar, exactly, much less one on Orous, but everything this evening had been about her needing people to help her. Guards. Staff. Advocates. Except, it was the Abrasax queen who needed staff and Jupiter Jones was just along for the ride. What if _she_   wanted something? Like, not letting Terrsies be killed? She cleared her throat. "Would the archivist know what Abrasax owns? The other Terrsie planets and all the Earth system stations, and everything?"

Gemma nodded. "Exactly so."

Tsing said, "We can make a dedicated holo-link to the alcazar for you. Gemma?"

Gemma slotted something into the desk, touched a few contact-points, and removed it. She held out a walnut-sized dark object with plain-circle markings. "Ma'am. Jupiter."

She made it seem so easy. "Thank you, all of you. Would now be a good time on Orous to contact the alcazar?"

"Ah," said Gemma, eyes vague for a moment, "it's late afternoon there. Yes. But," she glanced at Tsing.

"This office is shielded from outside holo contact. Would you like me to show you to an appropriate room?"

# # #

"Alcazar Aristaios," said a fearsomely beautiful gray-furred splice. "Do you—" He or she did a very human double take, complete with dropped jaw and wide, staring eyes. He (Jupiter decided) leapt from the center of a holo-desk to a graceful kneeling position. "Your Majesty, your Recurrence brings us joy. Welcome back to your alcazar." Four more people with the same gray-furred heads and dark eyes, all in matching gray velvet clothes, crowded into the background to kneel at Jupiter.

Woah.

Jupiter leaned back against a more-or-less anonymous ship bulkhead. "Thank you for the welcome," she said, hoping she remembered Gemma's quick explanations. "Please stand up and let me explain what I need."

"Anything, Majesty," said a slightly darker-gray splice. She rose slowly and ceremonially to her feet, head still bowed, and the others followed. "I am your chamberlain."

# # #

When Queen Jupiter had descended back into Chicago via grav-beam, with her soon-to-be-official lycantant guard and a thoughtful crease between her perfect Abrasax eyebrows, Gemma said, "Good call, Captain. Do you think she'll take it further?"

"I don't know, but she's surprised me more than once. She wants to protect her people. That might go a long way."

"She picked up on Terrsies not just being on Earth."

Diomika said, "Right. And you saw her come away from Balem's stronghold, alive. She's an Abrasax queen, for true."

"She might have to protect us," said Phylo.

"Then best she have the means to do so."

"You're right, Captain," he said. "She's playing with fire, so let's hope she's a fast learner."

"Let's hope we all are," retorted Diomika Tsing.

# # #

With all that, Jupiter was home in time to sleep in her own bed, regretting the loss of Caine's warmth but thinking, in the few minutes before she closed her eyes, of advocates and planets and unimaginable property, and also the messages from Ballarat, Australia. She had to check up on those, too.

It was still a comfort to wake with her mother and aunt, knowing her family was safe. She made coffee and oatmeal (with raisins, because Nino liked raisins) for breakfast. They had an early house and a second morning house today.

Jupiter took the bathrooms, glad that the relative privacy gave her a chance to re-read the messages on the sheaf from the Legion outpost, where Chicanery Night no doubt was lying in wait like a snake. Or a rat. When he'd been doing Balem's dirty work, he'd been smarmy-polite and deliberately infuriating. Was that just what Balem wanted him to be, or was he like that all the time? Two more messages on the sheaf were from him, full of flowery "Majesty" language. The most recent one said:

"Chicanery Night notes that it may interest Your Majesty to recall that Earth's planetary system still includes a number of minor Abrasax facilities that are not without value. How does Your Majesty wish to proceed to ensure that these assets are maintained safely?"

That was dated a few hours ago. At least _somebody_   knew what Abrasax had in the solar system — hardware, spaceware, people? She didn't trust anyone of Balem's, but if Night wanted to keep working for Abrasax, he'd have to do it through Jupiter.

Jupiter started the routine of cleanser and scouring and rinsing. This bathroom had nothing fancy to dust, and the towels and mats had gone into the laundry first thing. It was just wiping and mopping and scrubbing. She could think about messages while she did that.

Advocate Jery of Alcazar Aristaios had confirmed that the alcazar, and all contents, were indeed reserved for Seraphi's genetic self. It had sent an Abrasax property inventory thousands of items long, which was _unreal_ , but if it was somehow real… She had to think about that, too. However, the section for Earth System should be a useful comparison to whatever Chicanery Night might say.

Marshal Ursula's message started, "To Abrasax Primary Jupiter Jones," which was kind of a relief, but kind of wasn't, if she had to be an Abrasax Primary in her own name. Ursula got points for the name anyway, she decided. The marshal said that Earth was honored by the presence of a Great House primary, and recommended certain Abrasax refugees to Jupiter's attention. Untoward activity on Earth was very low since Jupiter's return.

Good, Jupiter thought, then backed up. All this politeness stuff had to be translated. The other Entitled weren't bothering Earth because she had an Aegis cruiser sitting over her head. Also, Chicanery Night, and whoever else it was, were probably being smarmy and infuriating at Marshal Ursula and claiming Jupiter's authority. No wonder if the marshal wanted the Abrasax refugees off her base. At Her Majesty's convenience, of course.

Jupiter gave the floor a last swipe and left to add the bathroom trash to the heap of plastic bags ready for the dumpster. One house done today.

# # #

The next house's bathrooms gave Jupiter a chance to look again at Advocate Jery's list of Earth system installations. Seraphi had inherited the planet on… incomprehensible date. She had added various research stations. After her death, Balem had closed two of those and replaced research teams at others, but he'd expanded the refinery. The valuations were give in Cs, except that the refinery and four smaller stations were worth "unknown, pending salvage." So, it was up to date. And whatever a C was, Earth itself, or rather its population, was valued in CCCs, an awful lot of them.

This house had a glassed-in patio open to the sky, full-length windows surrounding shrubs and flowerpots and brick paths. Cleaning the windows indoors, Jupiter could hear Mom vacuuming and thinking out loud about Riemann surfaces and fluid flows. When she moved out to the patio, Mom and Nino could see her but not hear her. Jupiter set the message sheaf in her pocket to voice-and-text and had it ping Chicanery Night.

His voice came clearly through the sheaf, which she was glad wasn't a holo-link. She didn't want her family _ever_   to see Chicanery Night again. Or vice versa. "Good morning, Your Majesty. I trust you have been enjoying your new title."

Ouch. But he was the only one of Balem's people who'd shown a sign of thinking for himself, and he knew Balem's operations. Or said he did. "It's nice to know you haven't lost your sense of the ridiculous," she said, as she began wiping down the mud spatters on the lower parts of the windows.

"How could I, on Earth?"

"Yeah, we're all ridiculous here. Don't worry about it. But… can you tell me about the Abrasax properties in Earth's system? If you value them, perhaps I should."

He didn't hesitate. "Besides the refinery your overzealous splice destroyed, there were a dozen small facilities, located in modified asteroids, and a large fleet of keepers based on Earth itself. Four of the small facilities were linked to the refinery, and subsequently failed, as I believe you are aware."

"I sent the ship that rescued the people."

"Ah, yes, so you did." He made it sound like a mistake.

Jupiter felt herself getting angry, and for once, she didn't have to be afraid of it. Night didn't have a saurian thug at his back any more, didn't have her family hostage. Night needed her, but she only needed him if he was useful to her. She said, "What would you have done?"

"For one, I would have sent a ship before the first sub-station overloaded."

That was fair. She wished she'd known enough to do it. "What else?"

"I'd have talked to the evacuated staff immediately to ensure their gratitude accrued to me, and their loyalty remained with Abrasax."

Cold. But he might be better than Balem. She added soap solution to her bucket, and picked up the long squeegee. "What would you do with the other stations? Were you in charge of those?"

"There are eight surviving stations housing a total of ten organizational units. Monitor stations, observatories, research laboratories, and one small industrial facility. Those will require supplies or maintenance in the near future if Your Majesty wants them to remain operational." His tone was still overbearing, but the numbers matched her Abrasax inventory list.

"Thank you." Jupiter wielded her squeegee on the streaky, rain-spattered glass. "Do you have updates from any of the remaining stations?" She owned space stations. Eight of them. Space observatories. With telescopes? Just, wow. She wished she could tell Mom about that.

"I should very much like to assure them that essential supplies will be forthcoming. I can no longer command those resources, if Your Majesty chooses to withhold them."

Could she trust Chicanery Night? Her gut didn't like him.

She needed somebody's advice, about these space stations she knew nothing about. Her gut objected to having her family kidnapped and helpless, but was that the issue now?

Not him, not yet. "Will you be available again later? I'm sure I'll have more to ask of you."

"I am always at Your Majesty's command." Back to full smarm mode.

Oh, well. If she couldn't stand him, she couldn't work with him but she'd have to keep him out of trouble somehow. "That's reassuring. Thank you, Mr. Night."

She ended the sheaf contact and left it in her pocket. She'd hardly noticed working, but half of the tall window panes were clean now. She needed to talk to the research-lab head, Lyrica whatever, and see what he-or-she said about Night.

She checked her bucket and squeegee, and was ready to re-check the sheaf's contact list, when Aunt Nino opened the glass pane that was a door instead of a window. Jupiter quickly pushed the sheaf back out of sight.

"Aleksa is doing the last of the bedrooms," Nino said. "We've finished everything else and it's almost noon. I know these tall windows are a—" _pain in the ass_   she added in Russian, which Vassily's middle-aged cousin could say aloud (occasionally), but Vassily's unmarried niece never should. "I'll push the squeege, and you can scrape them dry."

"Yes, Aunt Nino," she said. Nino wanted something, a family something, or she would just have yelled at Jupiter to work faster.

They soaped and scraped about half a window, and Nino said, "This boy you have now. We haven't seen him."

"There really is a boyfriend, I mean, a man," said Jupiter. That much, she was sure of.

"Oh, we know. We know how you are, you want to see him alone for a while. Aleksa was like that, too."

Jupiter paused. "Mom did what?"

"She was too smart for most men, for years and years. When she finally found someone good enough for her, she wanted him to be her own secret at first. You're smart, and if this man is your secret, if he's good enough, you'll bring him home later. That's all. You should know we notice." Having delivered her message, Nino swiped faster at the windows with the long squeegee.

"Oh." said Jupiter. "Thanks." She scraped and dried as fast as she could to keep up, and they finished in about half the time she'd taken while she was talking to Chicanery Night. The rest of the sheaf messages would have to wait until she was stuck in a bathroom again. And maybe it was time to let Caine be seen, sort of accidentally, just to let the family know she wasn't making things up.

# # #

Diomika Tsing woke to the For-The-Captain's-Information signal chime, which meant the second-watch duty officer was handling some event that wasn't an emergency. She had to let the crew do their jobs without interrupting them, or they'd get twitchy and lose their confidence. However, as the Captain she was twitchy about everything, which was _her_   job, or anyway it worked for her.

She listened in, without alerting anyone. Another external portal opened, which disgorged an Abrasax yacht without detectable armament, carrying people from Alcazar Aristaios in attendance on Her Majesty Seraphi's Recurrence. Letting Jupiter holo-link to them from the cruiser had stretched Aegis protocols a bit, but about Jupiter Jones, Diomika was exercising her judgment.

Would Jupiter dive into the bubble of Entitled luxury, the servants, whims and gratifications that the alcazar offered, or would she still want to rescue Terrsies beyond Earth from harvest? Diomika hoped to find out.

# # #

The third house today didn't allow any time alone, since the layout meant Jupiter was always cleaning in tandem with Mom or Aunt Nino. This was her job. Mom and Nino and Uncle Vassily depended on her. In the car between houses, she'd managed to check the research team leader's message: Lyrica Daelos would welcome a review of her research results with the new Primary… recent data merited further study and promised profitable and interesting developments if pursued before the impending harvest.

 _Harvest_. Jupiter hastily put the sheaf away. She kept her mouth shut and thought hard, while she scrubbed two toilets, one bathtub, three sinks, and six mirrors. This Daelos person did research about Regenex. There was a laboratory, or had been, attached to the refinery. What was being measured, or experimented with, about turning humans into rejuvenation treatments? Were there variations, or alternatives?

Maybe the researcher would know enough about the other labs and stations and everything, to find someone other than Chicanery Night to keep it going, at least for long enough to Jupiter to figure out what to do with it all. She didn't want anyone else to die by mistake, and she really didn't want any planets harvested. She had to talk to this person today.

# # #

The fourth house was small enough that they only needed an hour. Jupiter helped Mom get started in the kitchen before she went to scrub her way through the two bathrooms. One looked almost unused, so she dusted the counters and wiped things, but mainly it just needed a fast job on the sink and toilet.

Gritting her teeth in anticipation of someone like Chicanery Night, she pinged Lyrica Daelos, hoping this could be short. It would be morning in Australia by now. She hadn't realized she was waking Night up, and wondered if he'd been easier or harder to deal with because of it. Well, it was morning there now. She poured cleaner into the toilet and filled the sink, before she heard a woman's voice from the sheaf.

"Your Majesty." She was almost getting used to hearing that from everybody who knew about Abrasax, but it was just weird, except from Caine. "This is Lyrica Daelos, research head for the Abrasax refinery laboratories. Your attention to my concerns is a great honor." The woman spoke straightforwardly, as if bestowing great honor was something a queen couldn't help. Yeah, that was how it was. "Thank you for taking time to speak with me."

Jupiter said, "You probably know I've, um, inherited the Earth and its system, and Balem Abrasax isn't in charge any more."

"I've heard that, yes, Your Majesty. The Aegis marshal here confirmed it."

Jupiter supposed Chicanery Night might have been first with the news, but if Daelos felt the need to check on it, all the better. "I need to know some things," she said. "Are you also the head of the other research facilities in Earth system? I'm told they need supplies, and I want to appoint someone who can manage them all," she hesitated on a stray, unavoidable thought of _harvests_ , "according to my directions."

"Your Majesty, it would be… I have to be honest that I haven't handled that kind of responsibility." Daelos sounded embarrassed and flustered now. Oh, it was because she had to refuse Her Majesty. Wow, thought Jupiter. That's honesty. Don't be mean to her. "I'm a researcher with some ideas about Regenex, that's all."

Jupiter sprayed and wiped the mirror, and turned to the sink. "Please tell me about your work, a summary. I'm interested in what Regenex can do. Also, you can skip the 'Majesties' in conversation. Takes too long."

"Yes, ah, yes." The light, accentless voice seemed to lose some tension. "I'm working with Regenex formulations, analyzing at the molecular level. The early tests from Earth showed a very high differential index…" She continued speaking in bio-tech jargon, while Jupiter worked around the sink faucets with her brush. Jupiter got that the refinery lab had been "unit testing," which she hoped didn't mean what she thought it meant, and that the results were spectacular for the special applications Daelos was trying to create. "… so I'm identifying new variations that could be revolutionary."

Jupiter rinsed the sink, gave it a drying swipe with a washcloth, and checked the toilet. "Please indulge me, since I'm not, you know, not a molecular biologist. Are you identifying new variations of how Regenex molecules are put together?"

"Yes, that's the central concept, Yo— You're right."

"Are you saying you could _change_   it at the molecular level?"

"I, ahhh," Daelos paused. "Yes I could. That wasn't the original scope of work. The lab wasn't equipped for it. But I could."

Lyrica Daelos, it was clear, was all about research and didn't care where the materials came from. But also, she was taking Regenex apart and putting it back together at least in theory. What if she could do it for real?

Jupiter's long brush dislodged a few dirty particles from the innards of the toilet, that would be flushed away later. "You said you lost your samples and equipment, didn't you?"

"Oh. Yes. I'm very grateful you sent transport to take all of us off the stations, and I did pull the datasets before we portalled, but all the test batches, all the molecular isolations, stayed with the lab."

Jupiter could hear Mom and Nino talking, outside. They must be coming in to work on the bedroom suite already. She had to cut this short, now. "Ms. Daelos, thank you for the explanation. Please stay with the communicator, and I'll ping you again in a few minutes."

She pulled off one glove and touched the sheaf inside her jacket to end the contact, cutting off a "Majesty." Hastily, she flushed, checked for any leftover cleanser crumbs, and flushed again. Right on cue, Mom poked her head into the bathroom. "Jupiter, are you done in here?"

"Yep, just finished," said Jupiter. "There's one more off the living room, right?"

"That is right. You have enough time for it, I think."

While Jupiter sprayed and scrubbed and wiped and polished the half-bath that was off the living room and well away from bedrooms, she resumed the conversation with Lyrica Daelos. "I want to talk about your research possibilities soon, but I'm short on time right now. Can you recommend someone to oversee the remaining Abrasax stations in this planetary system?"

Daelos sounded more confident now. "It should be… that is, I think you might want to consider the Administrator at the Triad Station that does budgeting and supplies for everything but the big refinery. And also personnel, and research coordination. I believe it would be happy to have Your Majesty's authorization to continue support."

"So Chicanery Night doesn't have authority for those stations?"

"Oh, no, he's just the factory manager. He doesn't know anything about Regenex. He and Administrator Halan have different management styles. For their different roles, of course."

That added a lot to the picture. "I'm glad to hear it," said Jupiter. "Can you or Marshal Ursula give me a contact for the Administrator?"

"Of course. Do you want to connect with it immediately?"

"Not quite yet. I'll get back to you in, umm, about two hours." She'd be home then, and could hide for a while before dinner and get the low-down on this Regenex research, and talk to Halan… "Will Administrator Halan be willing to talk to me then?"

"It will talk to you at any time, Majesty. It doesn't have to sleep."

Maybe Lyrica Daelos was faking her out as much as Chicanery Night wanted to, but maybe she was the kind of head-in-clouds-of-theory scientist Mom reminisced about. Jupiter asked, "Am I right that Halan is an android?"

"Yes, it is."

"What else can you tell me about it?"

"It's very efficient, but, of course it is. Supplies and everything get delivered on time. We can trust it to source even specialized lab apparatus. And, the Triad Station people like it. They say it's old enough to have some real personality."

Jupiter flushed the toilet, recalling that equivalent facilities on Orous and elsewhere had all been soundless (except Kalique's had had plinky background music) so maybe Daelos wouldn't recognize what it was. "Thank you, Ms. Daelos. Until later."

"I'll look forward to it, Your Majesty."

Huh, thought Jupiter, freeing a hand to touch the sheaf. She needed to ask Caine, or maybe Stinger, for a Primer-for-Terrsies explanation of androids.

She really hoped they could make progress tonight on the Primer for Caine and Jupiter, too.

# # #

Jupiter, as alone as she ever wanted to be, sat cross-legged on her telescope platform on the shady side of the roof. In the late-afternoon warmth, she emptied the jacket's pocket and looked at everything. One Fabergé-egg holo-link. Three Orous-style sheaves, including the one with messages from the Aegis base in Australia, with new reminders from Chicanery Night and Marshal Ursula. Her own phone, a surprisingly sleek and functional thing next to the fake-book-look sheaves and the overdecorated-egg link. Terrsie technology wasn't too shabby. And, one plain holo-link with a marked circle lit up. Seraphi's alcazar wanted to talk to her. Maybe they'd have some answers.

Wait, how did all of that fit into one pocket that never weighed anything?

She looked at the Aegis ship-jacket and checked all the pockets. She'd been wearing it and carrying it around for days, at work and everywhere, and it was completely clean, unwrinkled, and a perfect fit, despite having been given to her at a moment's notice from, she assumed, a supply room or even the back of someone's closet. Nothing ever fell out of the pockets, either. Things stayed where they belonged.

Huh. Jupiter resolved not to under-estimate the Aegis.

She picked up the link to Alcazar Aristaios. Aristaios, Chamberlain Milla had said, was an earlier Great House that had merged with Abrasax in Seraphi's grandmother's era. If Advocate Jery already had recommendations about the Abrasax family meeting, good. Jupiter activated the link, expecting the gray-furred splice again.

The holo window opened to show Milla and four advocate androids framed against stars in space. "Welcome, Your Majesty," said Milla. "We are speaking from your ship, Abrasax Yacht B-alpha-3, the _Lotus Blossom_ , now situated near Earth for your convenience."

"Ah," said Jupiter. She recognized Advocates Jery and Bob, and who were the others? She hadn't expected a ship at all.

"I've taken the liberty," said Advocate Jery, "of bringing advocates you may find acceptable. You mentioned Advocate Bob, your guide at the Hall of Titles." Bob's golden topknot of curls dipped in a subtly ironic bow. "Advocate Kale has maintained financial operations at Aristaios for Your Majesty. Advocate Nika has handled matters of redress in the past, and would be most happy to resume service to Your Majesty." Nika and Kale, like Jery, affected smooth gray hair that didn't match their ageless, parchment-gold faces.

"I'm glad to meet you," said Jupiter, nodding at the three of them. "Bob, hello again! You got me through the Hall of Titles before, and I hope you'll work with me now." Bob gave a startled smile and bowed, this time not ironically. "I have a couple of question for Advocate Jery. Then I'd like to talk to Milla, please."

She wanted to know if making Administrator Halan her representative for the Earth system space stations would complicate anything. She wanted to know what a space yacht was good for. Holo-meetings? Rescue missions? Could it grav-beam her up like the cruiser? Her life was so _Star Trek_.

She should invite Lyrica Daelos on board. She didn't really want to talk about mixing up a new kind of Regenex where anyone and Chicanery Night might overhear. To the Entitled, Regenex was life. They were really hooked on it. If she was going to change anything about it, she wanted to keep it all under wraps until she could set her own terms.

"Milla, do we have a guest room on the ship? Can you do that grav-beam thing for someone in Australia? Oh, that is, three someones." If Daelos didn't want to keep her old team, the ship could portal to take them home.

Living in _Star Trek_   included, of course, the part where she had to save whole planets from certain death while sitting on a roof in Chicago.

Administrator Halan proved to be exactly the dryly efficient android that Daelos had described. It listened, via sheaf, to Jupiter's apology for leaving the stations stranded, and then to her explanation of what she wanted: keep the stations safe and running as usual, except that any activity like human sampling or abduction or any other harm to any humans was to be suspended immediately. It said, "Yes, Majesty. I will do as you ask."

Jupiter sighed her relief. "Thank you. Notify Advocate Jery of what you'll need. It has my approval for your authorizations. Please convey my compliments to the researchers and staff. Thank you again." She waited a few seconds for last-minute questions, but Halan didn't seem to be the last-minute type. She breathed relief again and closed the link.

Great, but… Chicanery Night would hear about that, if he was as ambitious and sneaky as he seemed. Advocate Jery had dropped a hint about the danger of disappointed employees, and the thing about being queen was that nobody was allowed to tell you what to do, even if they really knew better. You had to pay attention to hints. Okay. She'd have to distract Night. She didn't really want him near Earth any longer, did she? Jupiter found Night's latest message and pinged.

"Your Majesty," he said, instantly sardonic.

"I've been thinking about your management style," she said, borrowing from Daelos. "I'm sure that Balem must have been difficult to work for."

"I did my best to fulfill Lord Balem's goals," said Night, "while he lived."

Jupiter skipped a rant about Balem's goals being murder for profit. "That kind of dedication could still be useful to Abrasax. Would you be willing to transfer to a post closer to Orous?"

"Ah." All that glib mockery, silenced. She must have surprised him.

"It is an attractive prospect to, ahh, to do Your Majesty's will. I should of course prefer to know some specifics, if I am to prepare."

"Here's the deal." Jupiter's temper suddenly took over, the way it had with Balem. "You really pissed me off when you kidnapped my family, and me. I'd love to, let's see, Titus said this, 'cast you into the void.' I guess I really am an Abrasax." She stopped, breathing hard. She was liking this far too much. And she wasn't going to do anything like that.

Night remained silent, but she could hear him listening. Good. "I'm not going to do that. Because…" Was there any possible reason? Oh, yes, he knew how to run a factory. "You were running one of Balem's, uh, enterprises, well enough that he kept you there." With Balem, the alternative had been vivisection. She wasn't that much of an Abrasax. "Now that he's dead, the Abrasax Primaries have to decide who will manage his properties. If another Primary offers you a position, far away from Earth, I won't advise against it."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," he said, and with a renewed flourish of energy, "Your candor is most refreshing."

Hell, she thought, anything Balem had managed himself might be a place where Chicanery Night's personality would be an improvement.

# # #

There was one more person to talk to. Jupiter stood up and stretched. She had a date with Caine after dinner, to meet him close enough to the house for her cousins to get a glimpse of him. Hopefully, they'd see enough to be envious, before she and he disappeared into the night together.

Before that, she had to see if Lyrica Daelos might be able to figure out how to make Regenex from scratch, instead of from people. That would solve the killing-humans problem. What would it leave unsolved?

Jupiter decided it would probably be worth it. She picked up the holo-link and touched it.

After a brief conversation with Chamberlain Milla, the holo-window shimmered and cleared to show a green chair occupied by an olive-skinned young woman with neat, short black hair, in a gray shirt and dark leggings. "Lyrica Daelos?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"I'd like it if you'd call me Jupiter. Perhaps you can tell me more about Regenex formulations, and where your research might go with it?" Jupiter sat down where the telescope would be if it were night.

Daelos began a lecture, apparently in the middle, using terms like "rich genetic biosphere" and "iterative molecules" and "robust genetic plasticity." To Jupiter, it sounded like reversing the dilithium ion flow, until: "…could lead to tailoring Regenex for splices and potentially, for non-human species."

"All right, here's the question," said Jupiter. "If you could do that with Regenex, could you make something that works like Regenex by re-creating the molecules? Could you make it completely in the laboratory, instead of taking human populations for raw material?"

"Jupiter, Maj— um, please call me Lyrica if you would like to. Ahhh, that's… a really interesting question. It's basic that the genetic variations in the source makes the product viable across most users, but… hmmm."

"Have you thought about it before?"

That led to a discursive monologue, including phrases like, "secondary and tertiary geneactors…" and "the process has to… hmm… bio-diversity could be…" Jupiter let her argue with herself for a short while, listening carefully. When the molecular jargon ran out into, "It could be a workable approach, if… hmm…" Jupiter cleared her throat for attention.

"Now you're describing the project I want to fund. Do you think you have a good enough chance of being successful to justify your time and my money?"

"Yes," said Lyrica, and then looked up quickly, wide-eyed. "I mean, Jupiter, I'd like to think this through before I can really answer. I don't have a research plan. I have the beginnings of a hypothesis."

"Please think about it all, and draft a research plan, if you can see a way to re-create Regenex tailored for its purpose instead of depending on biological sources. You'd have any equipment you needed, anything except human bodies as material or samples."

When Jupiter had scrolled through Advocate Jery's list of Abrasax assets, she'd seen dozens of Terrsie planets ripening for harvest. Like Earth. Maybe she could save them.

# # #

Even after that, the night with Caine was not in any way an anti-climax.

# # #

 

CHAPTER 2

Jupiter woke the next morning to a sweetly rumbling "Your Majesty." Caine was tickling her in a very nice way that had absolutely nothing to do with squealing and laughing, but might well lead to moaning. She breathed into his neck, "Yeah. Oh yeah, Caine. Do that again."

He did it again, and in due course there was moaning from both of them.

"Wow," said Jupiter, eventually. "I am _so_   glad you rescued me all those times."

"I am, also. Although, I fear I have made your life more complicated."

"Well, some." It was Saturday, and she'd got Earth system off her plate, kind of, and the Abrasax stuff was going to be the advocates' business. Mainly. She hoped. "I don't have to work today, but now there are _five_   advocates waiting to talk to me. Will you go with me for that? We can tour the space yacht." She tried on a sultry tone. "I bet there's a master bedroom."

Caine said, smiling, "Your wish is my command, Majesty. Also, we are invited by the Aegis to morning coffee."

"Oh, right." There'd been a message on her own phone, not on the sheaf. "Captain Tsing sent it to me, too. I want to get her view of all the advocates and the meetings. The Aegis are supposed to be neutral, but she and the others gave me a lot of, um, Gemma called it sociological context. It helps me see things."

"The Aegis are accustomed to working with Entitled. I imagine they have some perspective on Great House disputes."

"Yeah," said Jupiter. Disputes between a sister and a brother and whoever Jupiter was. It wasn't like her own family didn't fight sometimes, but… She really liked her own family better.

# # #

The Aegis ship floated them up on a grav-beam, and the captain ushered both of them into a room larger than her office but with the nifty self-adjusting chairs and a table holding coffee, two kinds of tea, and small dumpling-like things on plates.

Jupiter greeted Tsing and Phylo Percadium, and met an elephantine splice introduced as, "Mr. Nesh is my best pilot, and also has connections to the independent guilds." Nesh flared his ears as he dipped his head briefly. Another splice with a head and beard of dark, rough fur around his dark, human face, with pointed ears like Caine's, was "Biron Agil, Crew Master Sergeant," and then Tsing looked at Caine. "Sergeant?"

"Sergeant of Her Majesty's guard," said Caine. He and Biron shook hands as a careful ritual, ears twitching and nostrils flaring.

"Welcome," said Biron, still careful, but smiling, and Caine said, "Thank you," as though it really mattered. Oh, that was another lycantant. That was wolf politics. Huh.

Then they could sit down, and Phylo passed around coffee. "Earth's coffees are excellent. I'm very glad to have a supply for the ship."

Jupiter sipped, and nodded agreement. But… "Do you buy ship supplies from Earth?"

"The Marshals have supply budgets in local currencies, Ma'am." Jupiter wondered how they got the local currencies, but then he offered her, with a flourish, a plate of pastries that smelled irresistibly of bacon and jam. They tasted as good as they smelled.

She happily ate one and half of another before she managed to put her plate down. "Captain, I appreciate the way you and your crew are helping me with information. You know, I'm sure, that an Abrasax yacht arrived yesterday. Seraphi's chamberlain said it was routine for an Abrasax primary away from her alcazar."

"It exchanged signals with us as soon as it portalled here, and it's notifying us of significant movements. No problems."

"I'm glad to hear that, but please tell me if it's stepping on your toes, or there's anything it should do, or not do, to avoid disturbing you."

"I'll keep you advised, of course," said Tsing. "It's quite usual for an Entitled to have her own communications base. That allows me to maintain formal neutrality during any conferences between Abrasax Primaries."

"What exactly should you be neutral about?"

Tsing smiled. "You and Earth system are my concern. Questions about other Abrasax properties should be settled within Abrasax."

"I'll be speaking to some advocates later today about, um, things. Right now, I want to get the Orous perspective about something I'm thinking about. I don't want to discuss it with Kalique or Titus, not yet and maybe not for a long time. I hope someone who's not related to Abrasax could tell me if it's impossible or not."

That got Jupiter curious expressions from everyone in the room. Tsing said, "It's generally best to talk a plan out before you do anything. People, this is confidential…" She looked back at Jupiter, "unless Jupiter objects."

"You're right," said Jupiter. "This should be confidential. I want to… I'm looking for a replacement for Regenex, something that won't use human harvests. One of the refinery scientists has some ideas about tailoring Regenex, which means re-making it, working with the structure. She thinks she can generate the molecule chains using synthesized organic… 'soup,' she calls it. Put enough molecules together, and it should do what Regenex does."

She paused for breath. Everyone was staring at her. Nesh had spread his ears wide and curled his nose. "It's more complicated than that. She'd have to build a library of Regenex components, to make it viable. A big library. And, as long as she's building it piece by piece, she could tailor strains of it for uses like healing broken bones, or for treating different splices."

"Well," said the Captain, softly. Biron and Phylo had stupefied non-expressions. So did Caine.

"I don't know if my researcher is deluded about what she can do. Maybe I'll have to find someone else, or a team. It will take time and money. Fine. I want to make it happen."

Phylo opened his mouth, and closed it. Nesh said, "Go for it," in a rough whisper.

Biron said, "Regenex healing works as far as a patient is genetically human. The Legion's splices, and all splices, would want tailored Regenex." Caine, behind Jupiter, made a sound of agreement.

Tsing said, "Jupiter, this could change everything. Time and money aren't even the first problems. This is something that would be good for everyone," she let her voice slow to a commanding presence that could not be ignored, "everyone — except the Entitled."

There was a moment of silence. Jupiter remembered refusing to give Earth to Balem, knowing he would kill her. That was an Entitled. She remembered wanting to throw up afterward, while she ran and scrambled and climbed for her life.

She'd saved Earth. Caine, who was sitting at her side now, had pulled her out of the aftermath. Jupiter said, "Are you saying it's impossible, or are you saying it's hard?"

"At least one of those. The question is, do you want to go on with it? You'd be competing with all the Great Houses, including Abrasax. Jupiter," she took a deep breath. "Jupiter, Ma'am, if you go forward with this, I hope you'll handle it very carefully, so that it — you — won't be stopped before you have a chance."

Jupiter could just clean houses for a living, or she could live among Entitled who killed humans for profit and their own long, beautiful lives, or she could live dangerously and try to save the people on other planets like Earth.

"I want to do it," said Jupiter. "If Regenex now doesn't heal splices as well as it could, I can start there. That won't be direct competition, at first."

Nesh uncurled his nose and said in a raspy tenor, "The pilots' guild has a lot of avian splices, and some piscine. And the Aegis includes many."

"Many," said the captain, and looked around the circle of faces. "At present, this is all speculation. I expect complete discretion from my crew members."

"Understood," said Phylo. Nesh and Biron and Caine echoed him. "And, Captain, what you said about the Great Houses' interests is very true. Jupiter, Ma'am?" Jupiter nodded at him. "In any discussion with any Entitled, I'd suggest that you don't mention changing Regenex. Later, give the project a bland cover name and a misleading cover description, from the first time you put anything on record."

All of this was far too real, and the conversation wasn't just polite hints. Doing anything with Regenex was dangerous. She was glad she'd got Lyrica onto the yacht right away. "So, how dangerous is talking about this, for you?"

"It could be, if you continue," said Tsing. "Right now it's you, a Great House primary who has obvious reasons for sympathy with the Third Estate, who'd be the first target if someone learns of this project and wants to stop it."

Jupiter was glad the Captain had said "Third Estate." Jupiter was trying to reclaim "Terrsies" in her mind, but when Entitled used it, they meant "cattle."

"Right now," said Phylo, "you're known to the First Estate as an unexpected Recurrence of someone who earned millennia of respect. Kebele isn't the only House that owed good will to Queen Seraphi. You'd lose that if you act openly against the good of Abrasax and other Houses."

"Ahh, I…" said Jupiter, taken aback, and wondered how far back this all went. Balem had wanted to kill her because he thought she was Seraphi, as much as he'd wanted Earth from her. Could he have been afraid that Seraphi (the real one) would threaten Regenex? Titus had suggested it, too, for what that was worth.

That wasn't here and now. She looked at Biron and Nesh, and Tsing. "What do you think?"

Tsing said, "Gentlemen? Completely off the record."

Biron said, in a thoughtful voice, "You'd be threatening the Great Houses' biggest monopoly. They will retaliate, when they understand it's a threat."

"You'd need a stealth approach," said Nesh. "Start with formulas for healing wounds, so the Entitled themselves don't even see it. Make the formulas for splices, so the Houses don't see a change in their own market. Then you'll be established with the Second Estate, and you'll have support separate from the Houses."

"Meanwhile," said Tsing briskly in a way Jupiter recognized as wrapping-up, "if Jupiter wants it, I could grant a brief leave to Mr. Percadium, so he can continue to discuss aspects of her role while she meets her household. He won't be acting as a member of the Aegis, but as a personal advisor familiar with Great House issues." She stood, and so did everyone else.

Phylo bowed formally to Jupiter. "Ma'am, will you accept me in your retinue for the day? I hope I might add to your understanding of certain nuances."

It was a polite way of saying she didn't know enough, but lots of people had said that, and this time it was true. Jupiter nodded and glanced at Caine, who nodded as well. "I'll be glad to have your advice. Thank you, Phylo, and you too, Captain."

"Thank _you_   for an eye-opening morning conversation. You've got a python by the tail." Tsing smiled with a flash of white teeth. "I'd really like to see you catch it, and not the other way around."

Jupiter grinned back. "Me, too. And, I guess it would be tactful if we beamed down to Chicago, and then let the yacht's pilot beam us up to the meeting?"

"Very much so," she said. "Phylo, you're on leave until your midnight watch. Jupiter, good hunting."

# # #

Diomika Tsing watched the party of three descend via grav-beam and looked back at Nesh and Biron. "If Her Majesty can deliver lab-made Regenex, we're in for some changes. The only question is, how fast."

Nesh said, "If she can provide splice-specific strains for non-mammals, the guilds will follow her anywhere."

"Don't I know it," said Diomika. "And the military. Right now, it's a dream. It's all contingent on a barely-hatched plan. She has one researcher with a maybe."

"She has an agenda," said Biron. "She'll find a way." He considered, his ear tips brushing at his tufted black hair. "The First Estate insistence that Regenex can only be effective from human sources has always seemed," his ears flicked up and down, "doctrinaire."

"There's no credible research on other sources," said Nesh, fairly, and then gave a rumbling snort through his impressive nose.

"There's been no House-sponsored research looking for other sources," said Biron. "Could anyone else be doing it? Surely Mr. Percadium isn't the only one who can think of disguising a research project as something else."

Diomika said, "Maybe we should follow that up, very quietly. Nesh, if the Pilots' Guild wants splice-adjusted Regenex so much, isn't anyone there looking for possible developments? If Jupiter can offer Abrasax backing, who might work with her?"

Nesh said, "I can listen for it. Lea Stork would know if anyone does."

"Better not call it Abrasax backing," suggested Biron. "With a new name and a new product, Her Majesty could end up founding a House Jupiter in her own right."

"A Terrsie for a House Primary." Nesh waved his ears expressing wonder, and _what could the universe do next?_

Diomika wished she could wave her ears too, and shrugged instead. "Recurrences are Terrsies. It had to happen some time."

"Captain…"

"Go ahead. We're all off the record still."

Nesh said carefully, "It's not quite neutral to send a senior officer with Her Majesty to an House consultation, even if he's on leave."

"I don't want Jupiter to be eaten alive by those Abrasax sharks. Lord Balem was a piece of work, and he may have left traps behind him. Lord Titus is no better."

"Will Her Majesty see your stratagem?" asked Biron.

Diomika wondered that herself. "Let's just see what she does."

# # #

It was one thing to "own" the Earth, according to the Orous Hall of Titles. It was something else to own a space yacht that was, in effect, a flying mansion more elaborate than any of the mega-rich houses she'd ever cleaned.

Its grav-beam twinkled and floated her (and Caine and Phylo) into the sky, into space where the Earth became a ball hanging below her boots and the stars were bright and still and full-circle around her in all directions. That wasn't getting old. Maybe not ever. The ship loomed up, too fast for her to see anything but a lot of smooth pieces that fit together without being attached, and then they floated into the ship's atrium.

The three of them had had a few interim minutes in Chicago, in an uncrowded corner of Lincoln Park. Phylo, dressed in flowy bright green, which he described as a "modest formal suit," lost his unflappable calm at the sight of trees and shrubs and somebody's dog. "What… that can't be a splice!"

Jupiter laughed, and waved at the blossoming branches. "It's a dog. A terrier, I think. It totally shouldn't be here." A thin cloud of bees rose and hovered, flowing back and forth in time to her arms. The dog stared at her and ducked back through the undergrowth, where an invisible voice said, "Rexie, bad dog! Come here." A querulous _yawlp_   faded into a distant _yawp yawp_.

Phylo whispered, "Your Majesty."

He was getting weird. Like Kiza and Stinger. Jupiter released the bees with a flick of her fingers. "Phylo?"

He shivered as if shaking off rain. "I mean, ahhh, Ma'am, are those roses?" He was looking at a clump of shrubbery dotted with five-petaled pink flowers, practically gawking at them.

"I think so," said Jupiter. They weren't florist roses, but maybe wild ones?

Caine stepped in. "The _Lotus Blossom_   is ready for us now, Majesty. Mr. Percadium, don't worry about the dog. Canine species on Earth are much more domesticated than splices."

In the _Lotus Blossom_  's atrium, Jupiter faced five advocates and two gray-furred, gray-velvet-clad splices. The splices knelt, beautifully. "Your Majesty." The advocates inclined themselves briefly and returned to upright.

"Chamberlain Milla?" Jupiter ventured.

"Yes, Majesty," said the female splice. Your return is most welcome, Majesty."

Jupiter hoped she sounded sincere, even if she couldn't match the formality. "Thank you for the welcome, Chamberlain. Will you introduced me to the ship's staff after I've talked to the advocates?" She waited until she could meet Milla's dark eyes in the mouse-gray, fur-circled, human face. This wasn't Milla Mouse like an old cartoon, this was a person, like Caine.

After Milla nodded, Jupiter turned to the advocates. "Where would you like to talk?"

"I'm partial to the library," said Jery, and conducted them all through a palatial central room into a large dark-paneled alcove of chairs around a table, and racks of sheaves like overdecorated books. "Will this suit you, Ma'am?"

The chairs looked like the self-adjusting ones on Captain Tsing's ship, but covered in (of course) gray velvet. "Thank you, this is excellent."

Then nobody moved, until Jupiter turned around and saw the advocates waiting with Caine and Phylo. Oh, she was running things. "Caine, Phylo, these are the advocates we'll be talking with today. Advocates, my guard sergeant, Caine Wise, and Phylo of House Kebele. Advocate Jery, would you introduce your colleagues to us?"

"Advocate Nika," began Jery, "has been Lady Seraphi's advocate for matters requiring redress. Advocate Kale has handled matters of operations finance for her." Jery's near-twins Nika and Kale gave respectful nods. "Advocate Bob is from the Hall of Titles. In addition, Bob has persuaded Advocate Gwill, an estate specialist with experience in the Ministry of Wills and Trusts, to join us if you approve, Ma'am."

Advocates Bob and Gwill made the inclined bow again. Gwill's frizzy brown hair curled above an angular, pale face and a russet-brown Ministry suit that gave the impression of being less rigid than Bob's.

Jupiter nodded back. She had to decide to keep this advocate or not, before she could start getting into Abrasax business. Okay. "Advocate Gwill, are you familiar with Seraphi Abrasax' properties and her bequests? "

Advocate Gwill smiled, even more joyously than Bob. "Oh, yes, Ma'am. It's fascinating! Her will was complex, since she had three heirs and also wanted to provide for a Recurrence. Some settlements are in absolute, but many are property in holding. It's interesting, also, in light of her sudden death—"

Advocates Jery and Kale tch'd. After a moment, Jupiter nodded at Gwill to go on.

"— that a large portion was set aside for redress actions that might be concluded after her will was in force. It should be possible for you, Ma'am, to reclaim that portion."

Well, it knew the subject. More than Jupiter did. She said, "Jery, what do you think?"

Jery bowed again. "I concur with Advocate Gwill's summary, Ma'am."

"Then Gwill, please stay, and let's all sit down. I understand that Balem's estate may be in dispute for a long time. Kalique mentioned wanting to make sure Balem's property would be maintained in the interim."

Caine pulled out the chair at the head of the table for Jupiter, and everyone else sat in some invisible order of precedence, so that Caine and Phylo were on either side of her and the advocates flanked Jery.

Nevertheless, it was Gwill who spoke first when Jupiter looked down the length of polished dark wood and waved at them to start. "Lord Balem's death without a will means that you, Ma'am, as the senior Abrasax heir, must seal any title-in-holding transfers of his property before the Commonwealth Ministry will approve them."

Aha, that was why Kalique needed her.

Jery said, "Our initial position is that _all_   Abrasax properties may be reassigned, by default, to Queen Seraphi's Recurrence." Gwill looked alarmed, but Jery gave a sort of _let me finish_   twitch and continued, "However, it might be efficacious, Ma'am, to ask what outcome you want of the Abrasax Primaries' meeting."

Jupiter wanted to prevent Terrsie humans from being killed wholesale. "I want to own or control all the Third Estate planets, as well as Earth. Is that possible?"

The eventual answer to that was, she could have a lot of them, but it would cost her.

When Titus' name came up, Phylo Percadium gave a remarkably nuanced sniff. "Lord Titus isn't known for financial expertise."

Advocate Bob made a quickly-strangled sound, and Jupiter said, "Advocate Bob?"

Bob said, smoothly, "Perhaps Phylo of Kebele would expand on his last point?"

Phylo shrugged, all careless elegance. "Lord Titus's recent ventures have been disastrous failures." Jupiter supposed that included Titus's scheme to marry her for Seraphi's property.

"He mentioned having four planets," Jupiter recalled. There was really no way to tell if anything Titus said was truthful.

"They are heavily encumbered, I hear. He has borrowed extensively."

"So maybe he would sell them to me, if I'll pay them off?"

Jery said, "I would be very surprised if Lord Titus made more than token objections."

That probably wasn't everything Titus might do, but he'd already shown his style.

Jupiter knew there was no way to avoid discussing Balem, so she took a deep breath and said, carefully impassive, "What about Balem's property?"

Advocate Nika said, "You say Lord Balem tried to kill you. You have Aegis witnesses for that chain of events, I understand." Phylo, on her left, showed only polite attention.

Caine said, "I saw it as well."

As steadily as she could, Jupiter said, "Balem told me about having killed Seraphi, and said I should have stayed dead. That was while he was bashing me with a piece of pipe and I was fighting him for my life." The library lighting was indirect and perfectly even, but she felt like smoke and lights were making her eyes water.

There was a moment of silence. Could advocates be shocked? Nika twitched, but then its face smoothed back into the Abrasax-retainer mold. "My sympathies, Lady Jupiter. And thank you, Mr. Wise. Ma'am, based on that, and as your House's senior primary, you can demand all of Lord Balem's property if you choose to do so." Gwill looked up sharply, but Nika continued, "If the other heirs contest it, at your discretion you may decide to grant them some portion, perhaps to secure other concessions."

So, it was kind of a swap meet, but she'd have some good pieces. She hoped.

Eventually Jery said, "Lady Kalique inherited a dozen of the Abrasax Third Estate planets absolutely, as well as, in holding, the entirety of the Alcazar Cerise and its assets." It added, "She has maintained and enhanced their value."

Jupiter was getting used to Jery's style. "It doesn't sound like she'd give them up for cheap. What's the alcazar 'in holding' for?"

"It belongs to House Abrasax as an entity. The senior primary may choose to use it herself, or transfer it in holding to another primary."

"I kind of guess Kalique would like to keep living there. Is it valuable?" She checked in her pocket for the sheaf that could display Jery's inventory list.

"The attached assets are considerable," said Jery, "including several space stations, and of course, Cerise itself."

"The alcazar includes the planet?" Jupiter closed her mouth almost quickly enough to think no one noticed.

"Cerise and its system are a beautiful spectacle, but questions arose about its orbital equilibrium in the long term. It was not seeded, but retained as an estate."

"Just as an aside, does Alcazar Aristaios have attached assets like that?" She really should have read more of the inventory list, but her only free time lately was when she was asleep.

Jery didn't even have to pause. "There are the extensive grounds, the staff, a dedicated space station in synchronous orbit, the major part of the Abrasax ceremonial jewelry, and most significantly, the apiary and genetic laboratories. This is all yours absolutely, Ma'am."

Phylo had stopped looking disinterested and gone wide-eyed. Caine smiled.

"All right. The will's absolute bequests mean I keep Earth and the alcazar, and Kalique and Titus have their planets. But it sounds like I can buy Titus's."

"Indeed, Ma'am. From Lord Balem you will have, in holding pending a decision by the Ministry of Wills and Trusts, his Third Estate planets and a number of large assets such as mines, farms, factories, residence ships, and interests in some marketing cartels. Any of these can be transferred, in holding, to Lord Titus."

"And if Kalique and I are, as she says, 'working together,' we might find something to trade. Is there anything she wants? That she doesn't have?"

Phylo said, thoughtfully, "She appears to enjoy her role as the showcase of House Abrasax."

"Hm." Kalique liked playing the Abrasax queen. Jupiter didn't. Maybe they could come to an agreement.

# # #

Before lunch Jupiter visited Lyrica Daelos, who'd been accommodated in a small suite. There were a few sheaves on a low table next to the decadent-looking green lounge chair Lyrica sat in. At Jupiter's greeting she tore her attention from a sheaf in her lap, visibly pulling herself from the depths of organic chemistry and primordial Regenex. "This is more exciting than anything I've done before," she confided. "It's like taking the brakes off a speedster. It's against all the theory, except the theory was skewed to begin with, and if you unskew, everything is possible. I hope you're still willing to take a chance on me, ahh, Jupiter."

"When you're ready with a research plan, I'll figure out how to set you up in a small-scale lab for a first test," said Jupiter. But, Lyrica, I hope you know this has to be a completely confidential project. I'm kind of glad your assistants wanted to go back to Orous, because the more I think about what a new kind of Regenex would mean, the more I don't want anyone else to know about it yet. Not even the staff here. They haven't asked you anything about it, have they?"

"Only pleasantries. I said you were following up on the work I'd been doing before, and nobody wanted more than that."

"Good," said Jupiter. "I didn't think about how big the Regenex industry is. If your ideas work out, it will start a change in who gets it and who profits from it, and that will upset some people. A lot of people. Do you understand?"

Lyrica looked down at the sheaf she was recording diagrams into, her olive-sallow hands motionless inside a holo of swirling blue-red-green-yellow line segments. "Yes, Jupiter, Majesty. I'm starting to think nobody ever worked on this because nobody was ever allowed to. I haven't read any discussion or speculations about this twist in the theory. But, there should have been some, and I should have seen it."

"When I first talked to you, you were already thinking about re-tailoring Regenex. Maybe you see it because you're ready for it."

"This is lots bigger than the tweak I was looking at. Either there's a flaw in here somewhere," Lyrica poked a blunt-nailed finger at a 3-D loop of intertwined polygons, "and you'll have wasted the funding unless I can fix how it works, or… everything in this field is taught skewed, exactly so Regenex won't be retro-engineered. If that's it, making it and going public with it is a bigger risk than wasting Cs. I don't even know how much bigger."

"Do you want to keep on with it?" asked Jupiter, thinking of Diomika Tsing.

"I have to! I have to know if I'm wrong or if I can do this!"

"Great," said Jupiter. "Keep on until you have a plan. Don't talk about it anywhere but with me, for now. Is Milla keeping you comfortable?"

"Oh, yes, Milla-Melda's a dear," said Lyrica, all but diving back into the sheaf with its curving rows of pentagons and hexagons. "Hmm, thank you, Jupiter."

# # #

Jupiter couldn't decide if the interview was troubling or encouraging, but she put it aside while she met the staff and crew of the good ship _Lotus Blossom_. She hadn't yet asked whether the androids and all the gray-furred splices (Seraphi had obviously had a theme going) were slaves owned by Abrasax or employees on contracts, mainly because she was afraid she couldn't cope with the answer. Whichever it was.

There would be time to think about that later. Seraphi, and now Jupiter, had two pilots, a chef and sous-chef, two engineers, two personal attendants, and Chamberlain Milla plus Milla's assistant, Melda. She also met her four new Legion guards in their own dormitory wing near the gym. Caine assured her they would be perimeter support, and that it would be his pleasure to continue guarding her person himself. That led to a nicely personal embrace in her own suite's dressing room, while she was "freshening up" before lunch.

"Tonight we're going to use that bed," she told him, "unless you don't want to. Is that okay?"

"I'll be happy with it if you are," said Caine, looking speculatively through an archway toward about an acre of slate-blue brocade bedspread and pale cushions that matched the suite's dove-gray upholstered furniture and hangings. One curtained wall had turned out to be a window, or maybe it was a view screen, showing Earth and stars and, enchantingly, a full moon. "I'm not sure your staff will approve."

"My staff don't get a say." Just then, personal attendant Brea knocked from behind another doorway. "Not about you. But, they want to dress me up for talking to Kalique." Jupiter disengaged, after one last kiss. "You should check on lunch, make sure it's not poisoned or anything. Make them let you taste it." Caine grinned and departed.

Brea carried a trouser-and-tunic outfit in bronze-gold that turned out to flatter Jupiter's body and coloring. It figured, if she and Seraphi were genetic twins. Her hair went up quickly into a high knot with gold bees on pins to secure it. "No jewelry," said Jupiter. Brea, her dark-eyed face surprised, was caught short with a tray full of gold things. The chunky bracelet would have suited Cleopatra. "Oh, all right. Just this." She slid it up her arm, and let Brea outline her eyes, which made her think of girlfriend parties in high school, but it went fast and neatly. "Thank you, Brea. The outfit's a good choice. I think I'm late for lunch, so that's all."

She waved off gold-dust cosmetics, stepped into little bronze-gilt half-boots that fit oh-my-god perfectly, and strolled out the door feeling like a million Cs. It was exactly how she wanted to feel when she talked to Kalique.

# # #

Lunch was fascinating. Second-chamberlain Melda served the three of them with a series of finger-food trays, which meant no one had to worry about utensils, only napkins. Jupiter looked at Caine and Phylo. "Who's done this before, guys? I don't know First Estate table manners."

Phylo didn't laugh. "Ma'am, it's your prerogative to start the meal, unless you chose to honor a guest by asking her or him to do it."

"Please honor me by partaking of my food," said Jupiter (totally copying Aunt Irina with guests), and imitated one of Phylo's elegant gestures of the morning.

Phylo gave an elegant nod of acknowledgment. "You honor me more than my deserving, Lady Jupiter," he said. He picked up one tiny sandwich, ate it in a single mouthful, and wiped his fingers afterward.

That got things going. When they'd each had a dozen or so tidbits, Jupiter sipped at her tiny cup of iced fruit tea (kind of like lemonade, but darker). "I'd like to hear what both of you think about the advocates, and what I might say to Kalique when we, um, holo-chat."

"I'm glad you have Bob and Gwill in on this," said Caine. "The alcazar advocates knew Queen Seraphi and Abrasax, but you also need people who listen to you without thinking about her."

"That's a good point," said Phylo. "I might have missed it, since I've known a lot of people who liked to say they knew Queen Seraphi, even if they didn't." At Jupiter's raised eyebrows, he added, "No, I never met her in person. I did hear a lot of gossip about House Abrasax, now and then."

"I'd like to know about that," said Jupiter.

Phylo looked alarmed, then carefully and elegantly embarrassed. "Not all of it would be edifying. Let me see if I recall anything useful and recent about Kalique, or… Ah, Lord Titus should have known better than to mortgage his House assets to House Phorcyx."

"Is that bad?"

"Phorcyx likes to let profligate Entitled take out debts, and then pursue their Houses for redress."

"Then they'll be happy to have a Great House primary pursuing them to repay Titus's debts, I hope," said Jupiter.

"I'd recommend that you include Advocate Nika in your pursuit. I've heard it's remarkable how much the interest on a Phorcyx loan drops when an advocate is present. You may also want to ignore any talk of publishing Titus's expensive and, ah, unusual tastes, Ma'am. The Entitled already know the rumors, and no one else cares."

"Ah-ha," said Jupiter. "I get it. Tell me, what are these red flower-shaped things? What are they made of?"

Those are red pigeon eggs cooked into the shape and spiced with," Phylo took one and bit into it slowly, "fennel and basil," he said, when he'd swallowed the mouthful. "You know, perhaps, that Lady Kalique brought some new foodstuffs into use on Orous?"

"Is this gossip, too?"

"Yes indeed. Lady Kalique never talks about business openly. However, she sometimes takes up a novel appetizer or a device or game and makes it popular, and — this part is the gossip, but I think it's true — she finds them on her Third Estate planets."

"Huh." That was kind of interesting. "If something becomes popular, where do the people it's popular with get it? Do only a few Entitled ever have it, or is there a way to buy it? Is Kalique selling these things?"

"Now that you ask, I think the novelties might be a profitable sideline for her," said Phylo. "I know one of them, a game, caught on with First Estate hobbyists, and it crossed over so that even Second Estate players all had its dedicated sheaf that season."

"Balem wasn't doing anything like that, that you know of, was he?"

"It wasn't his style." Phylo sipped at a tiny cup of dark coffee. "Actually, I'm not sure of his style. He wasn't… consistent."

"He was batshit crazy," said Jupiter, flatly, and shut her mouth before she spewed out too many details. Again.

Phylo raised his eyebrows. "First Estate gossip concurs, although I believe it's phrased as 'ruthlessly eccentric.'"

Caine said, "I like 'batshit.' However, it's interesting to hear that the First Estate already perceives Lord Balem as unstable."

"The advocates might like to know that Lord Balem's reputation supports your account of events. It's not for me to suggest it to them, but you, Ma'am, have every right to do so."

Jupiter nodded, and glanced at Caine to make sure he'd remember too, before she thoughtfully finished her tea.

Melda appeared with a fresh tiny cup of tea and a new tray of finger foods. Jupiter smiled thanks and took a pink fruit with sweet filling. "If Kalique is importing or copying things from her Third Estate planets, do those include anything like medical technology? I've had some thoughts already about how Terrsies have had to invent our own ways to cure illness and heal injuries and improve our bodies. Some of those might be effective enough to benefit all Estates."

"Ahh. You're making plans. If Lady Kalique has introduced the egg-flowers and games and revolving toys, you'll have some camouflage for your innovations."

"Exactly." Jupiter watched Caine fondly as he ate one of the pink fruits, then another, and wiped his fingers. "Kalique is the only Abrasax primary who's qualified to manage anything, and I think she won't let it all go to waste as long as there's something in it for her. I have to give her something she wants."

"I think she'd like assets and income as much as anybody," said Caine. "Entitled lifestyles take a lot of upkeep. She likes Cerise, and you can make a show of giving it to her instead of taking it yourself."

"One suggestion, Ma'am, ah, Jupiter," said Phylo. "She may indicate an interest in the Aristaios bee-works, but I would say, if asked, that you shouldn't cede them to her." His gaze went to Jupiter's pinned-up hair. "Those are Abrasax' earliest success, its oldest symbol, and Queen Seraphi secured them in her own alcazar, for you. She could have given them to Kalique, but she didn't."

"Are they still important?"

"The bees created for each House's seeded planets command a very high price. If you plan to finance long-term research, you will need all the funds your assets can produce."

"I hear you," said Jupiter. "This project will take years, right?"

"At least."

"And it's dangerous."

Caine looked grim as Phylo said, "Industrial competition is, I promise you, a game of life and death."

"This industry is already about life and death," said Jupiter.

# # #

Kalique's holo-window shimmered into visibility in the library, where Jupiter stood framed by a dark wall beside a gray chair. This was just a casual chat to set a time for an upcoming meeting, right?

When the link was established facing Jupiter, the advocates walked quietly into the alcove opening behind it, well out of Jupiter's holo frame but placed where she could see them. She'd asked them to signal with "up" or "down" gestures if something sounded okay or booby-trapped. Taking notes openly would have ruined the atmosphere.

Kalique, now that Jupiter could look at her calmly, had Jupiter's — Seraphi's — nose and chin, but the sculpted hairstyle and her holo-frame's careful lighting did a lot to make them pretty. Okay. Jupiter still felt like a million Cs in her golden outfit, and, wow, the shoes were propping her up like being in an easy chair, only upright. The rich really were different. They had good shoes. "Hello, Kalique. I hope you'll call me Jupiter."

Silver-outlined eyes widened as Kalique took in her outfit. "Oh, Jupiter, have you found your alcazar? Isn't your dressmaker fantastic? I always wanted to borrow her!"

Jupiter blinked, seeing Kalique now as another of the overdressed socialites she'd met in high-rise condos. Maybe that was the style to expect. "Your gown couldn't possibly be improved," she said, honestly envious. Deep rose with silver highlights flowed sleekly over Kalique, framed by a muted silver background. At least there was no plinky music. "I want to talk a little now before the formal meeting. We should have a strategy to handle Titus."

"I am quite sure he shouldn't be in charge of anything you'd want back."

"Oh _hell_   no," said Jupiter, without thinking, and made a face at her lost dignity. She could see Phylo, behind the advocates, not quite laughing. "I'm told Balem was managing most of the industrial side of Abrasax' holdings."

"He really liked that," said Kalique, almost wistfully. "He was so very good at it."

"I'm sure you manage things. Your alcazar was overwhelming when I saw it, but now I remember that everything suited you, and it was ready to supply anything you wanted, and it had appropriate defenses against intruders. You make that happen, don't you?"

Kalique gave one of her high-wattage smiles. "I oversee it, yes. I loved putting it together. It was… creative."

"Maybe you don't like to manage your business holdings directly, but I'm sure you oversee them. To make sure they're not wasted."

"Well, of course I do," said Kalique. "It's only good sense. But…" She gave Jupiter a questioning look. Behind her image, Bob waved a go-ahead gesture.

"The problem," said Jupiter, "is that I haven't managed anything this big, like a planet, as Jupiter Jones." Maybe Kalique believed she was Seraphi's resurrection. Maybe it was a legal fiction. "I know Seraphi did it, so I should be able to, in time. Right now, someone else will have to handle it."

"Oh, of course." Another brilliant smile.

"Titus isn't a good candidate."

"Dear Jupiter, oh _hell_   no." Kalique's expression now looked gleeful, and not rehearsed.

Jupiter couldn't help laughing. Beyond the holo-window, Advocate Bob was sort of frowning, but he wasn't making hand motions. Jupiter recovered some of her cool and said, "So, it's obvious you're the best choice to take on management of the Abrasax property, but I have to make some conditions."

"Oh." Kalique sobered, then smiled again. "Of course. That's just prudent of you."

"There are complications that the advocates can sort out, and Balem's property is all in holding until the Ministry of Wills and Trusts gives a decision, but I hope you'll consider a stewardship contract for a large part of the properties that were Balem's." Kale and Bob had had a lot of useful advice on procedures and terminology. "That's only if you'd accept a percentage of the income of anything you oversee."

"Stewardship," said Kalique. "With compensation. I would seriously consider it, yes."

"I can even suggest one of Balem's facility managers to you, if you need people familiar with his methods. Perhaps you could find a use for him."

"Possibly. I'll consider the advantages." Kalique wrinkled her nose prettily.

Jupiter wondered if that would work for her, and decided against it. "I also intend to negotiate with Titus for his larger assets. I don't think he has very many left, and he's proved he can't take care of his things."

"I know he wanted Earth, but I think it was just for the Cs, since he was talking so much about beauty and sentiment," said Kalique, artless and amused.

"Perhaps I could ask you to manage his remaining property on his behalf, to make sure it stays profitable. Of course, for a percentage of the income. I don't know if you'd want to do that, since it's possible that Titus has—" _pissed you off_   "—been outrageous enough to put you off dealing with him."

"Has he done that to you already?" Kalique sighed elaborately. "As for managing his allowance, I can't say I like it, but Titus, you know, will like it less." She sighed again, this time delicately satisfied. "He's an Abrasax heir. It wouldn't do to leave him destitute."

"I'm sure it would look bad," said Jupiter, deadpan. Behind Kalique, Jery signaled a with a hand waving up and down.

"It gets worse," Kalique confided, more in sorrow than in anger. "Did he even mention that some items were willed to him in holding for Seraphi's Recurrence? I have to say, I doubt that he told you." Gwill and Jery both signaled high. This must be true.

Jupiter thought about Titus's style. "Did that include a huge diamond ring, do you remember?"

"Why, yes. There's an ostentatious set of jewelry, terribly overdone, but it's all natural diamonds. They have a quality the perfect ones just can't match. A feeling."

"Do they?" said Jupiter, doing her best to sound politely disinterested. Advocate Kale gave a thumbs-up.

"Of course Seraphi's intentions must be followed. Earth has been your first concern, naturally, but there's the alcazar, with the exotic zoo and splice labs, and you have the House ships and space stations and all the official jewelry." Kalique put a hand up to her hairdo, where silver and rubies glittered. "Some of that's in my holding, too, and some was maintained separately for you." Gwill gazed at Jupiter earnestly, one hand tilted down.

Jupiter was pretty sure Kalique really liked that particular set of ornaments. "I'll have to let the advocates confirm the whole Abrasax inventory, for form's sake, of course." Gwill nodded and folded its hands back together.

Kalique gave an earnest nod. "Of course. As a primary, I'm glad you're doing that."

"After that, I understand there are responsibilities that I'll have to take on or delegate. Perhaps you'd like to hold some of the jewelry? If you're representing House Abrasax, I wouldn't want you to change your style."

"I have to admit I've become fond of these rubies, and some other trinkets. However, the urgent decisions are for the seeded planets and refineries and that sort of thing."

"About the planets," said Jupiter, hoping she sounded tentative instead of determined. "I've speculated about looking into the Third Estate civilizations for inventions that might benefit Orous. All that parallel evolution, you know. I think it might be worth something."

"That's a good notion." The tone was perhaps a shade breathless. "I should do that with my planets."

"With anything thing you oversee, it's your decision." As long as Kalique knew she knew something was going on, they'd figure out how to live in the same House. "That's why we need to have a real meeting. It has to be on Orous, so we can transfer titles. Is tomorrow soon enough? I left Titus kind of in disarray and since then I've been dealing with Earth. I plan to keep a residence on Earth, for the time being."

"Perhaps you know that Seraphi always said Earth was the most beautiful planet she had." Bob actually rolled its eyes, but didn't move either hand.

"Oh, I agree." Jupiter reminded herself that she was running things. "Shall I set the meeting for noon tomorrow?"

"That's suitable," said Kalique. "I'll be ready. I can't speak for Titus, but if he misses a House meeting, he forfeits his voice in any decisions."

"Will that bring him?"

Kalique smiled a satisfied, possibly honest, smile. "If it does, we're ready for him."

Jupiter supposed she was as ready as she'd ever be for Kalique: undocumented-alien survival skills and a lot of plain luck up against fourteen millennia as an Entitled.

Everyone in Abrasax wanted her to be Seraphi, but she was Jupiter Jones too.

# # #

The rest of the day felt less like walking a tightrope over a tiger pit. Caine excused himself to lead the new guards from the Legion through an orientation, so it was Jupiter who escorted Phylo back down the grav-beam to Lincoln Park before his pick-up by the Aegis cruiser. She didn't do the trick with the bees again, but even so Phylo remained skittish toward the park's well-tended greenery.

"Did you grow up in a city?" she asked him.

"Mostly," he said. "On Orous, one doesn't have much choice. There are gardens, but this is immensely bigger. The water over there is unprocessed!" he flapped a hand toward Lake Michigan, hidden beyond trees. "The air's unprocessed, too."

"I think you're right," said Jupiter. "Look, birds are pecking and hopping on that grass."

Phylo looked, and stared at them for the minute and a half before the cruiser's grav-beam picked him up with perfect accuracy and wafted him upward. In bright sunlight the beam was invisible, and by some trick of sparkling light, so was Phylo by the time he cleared the treetops. A few minutes later, Jupiter heard a signal chime from her pocket and stood still while her own nearly invisible beam lifted her from ground to sky to space to ship.

That left her time to review the Abrasax inventory with Advocate Jery and draft the contracts she hoped would arrange all that property — she had to think of it as abstract units, like cards in a poker game — so it, and Kalique and Titus, would be out of her way for the foreseeable future.

After dinner, Caine turned out to know just what she needed, which was first a lot of slow, warm kneading on all the tense muscles Jupiter hadn't been using all day, and then slow, sleepy sex that ended fast and hot. After that, it was easy to fall asleep in a bed big enough even for skyjacker wings. The wings folded themselves back at rest, but Jupiter remembered them flaring out and up while Caine's deep groan shook both of them.

She woke later into dim light, frantic and gasping, from a dream about falling, and fire, and being chased by angry dinosaurs because she'd killed them and taken their Earth.

Abrasax had done that. Exactly that. Jupiter stared out at the crescent-daylight Earth and full moon, until Caine's wings stirred and wrapped both of them in warmth. Then she closed her eyes, and she was dreaming about pie. Really good pie. Caine was eating it with her, feeding her, and she could taste his fingers in her mouth.

# # #

For Jupiter it was a new experience to sleep in after a warm parting whisper-and-cuddle, and so was breakfast in bed. "Where's Caine?" she asked, as Melda settled the bed-tray. The food smelled fantastic. The room light brightened to a morning-ish glow.

"Guard Sergeant Wise gave us instructions that you should not be disturbed until it was necessary for you to prepare for the meeting today. He has preparations to make also, since your Royal Guard will escort you."

"Okay. You're right to follow Caine Wise's instructions. Does everyone know that?"

"I will tell the staff. You have messages, Majesty." She set Jupiter's message sheaf and her smartphone on the breakfast tray.

Jupiter sipped coffee, and added the Orous-style honeyed milk because she could. It was a far cry from waking for work at quarter of five in the morning, and the fruit and muffins and roasted meat were sweeter and richer than anything she'd had for breakfast, ever, served to her in a bed with smoother sheets than any she'd put on beds in million-dollar houses, and the view from space was _spectacular_ , but… Nobody deserved a dozen, or a hundred, people looking after her. The Entitled had _made_   all these splices; did the splices have any choice about what they did? What about the advocates and other androids?

First, she told herself, get the Abrasax Terrsies away from being "harvests."

The only message she cared about was a note from Lyrica Daelos saying that the research plan was proceeding well and that Lyrica was, as ever, available to Jupiter at any time.

Sitting still gave Jupiter time to worry, while Bari sectioned and braided her hair, threaded the braids through gold loops, and pinned them into what amounted to a crown tipped with gold bees. She and Advocate Gwill and the others had a plan and two fallback plans to deal with Kalique's and Titus's advocates. Half the meeting goals would be either gained or lost by the time the advocates broke out of their first huddle.

Breakfast sat heavily in her stomach, but she was glad she'd eaten it. She had no idea how long the meeting would take.

# # #

Bob had described the Commonwealth Hall and its portals to the Commonwealth Ministry above the planet as though it were an ancient cathedral. Jupiter supposed it kind of was one, for Orous. For the meeting there, she'd been dressed by Brea and Bari in a long dove-gray tunic and a formally draped silky bronze stole that (they said) made her look more like Seraphi than ever. She was wearing enough gold in official Abrasax jewelry to sink a battleship, or buy one, but her bronze platform pumps were even better than yesterday's shoes. No matter what, she was going to keep the shoes as well as the flying boots.

Noon on Orous was a couple of hours before noon on Earth, not counting extra time for traffic and quantum differences. Jupiter's landing pinnace was drifted to the surface by a remote Commonwealth operator; grav-beams were heavily regulated, to avoid unfortunate interactions between overlapping beams. All the way down the pilot, Aldi, sat tensely at the pinnace controls, ready to take over if the grav-beam malfunctioned.

Orous might have been like Earth originally, but now it was a continuous web of structures, some reaching up toward orbiting stations, some spreading over sea and land alike, leaving only green oases here and there. Aldi pointed out a large green patch as Alcazar Aristaios, before it went off the edge of the screen and all she could see were close-packed shapes of metal and stone. The Commonwealth Hall showed as a circle surrounded by six landing courtyards.

The pinnace _Lotus Petal_   landed gently and ceremonially without interference. Jupiter, preceded by Caine in gray-and-gold livery, surrounded by four stiffly similar guards, and followed by her advocates and Milla and Brea, paraded up the marble walkway and under the arch leading to the outer and inner halls.

The vast, circular inner hall contained seven open-plan stations under seven domes. Abrasax rated the center station, which was easily large enough for the Abrasax primaries and their advocates and attendants. Jupiter felt like an upstart at a palace party, but if she could pull this off, she could block the killings on dozens of Abrasax planets. If she could keep up being "queen" long enough to create a replacement for Regenex, she'd make thousands of planets' humans worth more alive than dead. She had to do this.

At least she really was dressed like a queen.

She nodded at Kalique, whose gown and artfully draped veil glittered with Cerise-mined tourmalines, and got a serene nod in return from the middle of a crowd of guards and advocates. Titus, although his retinue was only Famulus and an advocate, was every bit as slickly handsome as Jupiter remembered, his dark under-robe nearly hidden by a mass of shining white drapery that was anchored on one shoulder with a chunk of dragon-shaped silver. Jupiter gave him a level look while she estimated that the silver might buy a ferry ship. Probably a small one.

She didn't have to say much yet. She motioned toward her advocates. "My designated speaker is Advocate Jery of House Abrasax."

Jery stepped forward, completely in its element. It'd done this for Seraphi, probably a lot. "Lady Kalique. Lord Titus. Advocates for Lord Balem. The Senior Primary of Abrasax calls you here to make provision for Lord Balem's property, until the Ministry of Wills and Trusts declares his final will or declares him void of final will."

Kalique gave an elegant wave, the kind Phylo might have used. "My designated speaker is Advocate Robin, of the Ministry of Title Transfer." A glossy-haired, sharp-faced advocate stepped forward and bowed to Jupiter and Titus. The robin's-egg-blue suit sported a lacy jabot over a slightly out-curved chest. Okay, this advocate chose to be female.

Titus's draperies swayed gracefully as he extended a hand. "My designated speaker is Advocate Flave, of House Phorcyx." The advocate came forward, its suit an eye-grabbing magenta, its hair an auburn aurora of curls around the pearl-white face. Flave gave the usual carefully inclined bow, straightened, and smiled crimson-lipped directly at Jupiter. Bob clicked a subdued "tch."

Jupiter didn't raise her eyebrows, but she wondered if House Phorcyx or Titus had picked the advocate. Was the smile supposed to be a come-on, and if so why? Then a fourth advocate came forward, one of two wearing black suits but the same gold-parchment faces as Jery and Nika and Kale. "I am Advocate Oma of House Abrasax, designated speaker by Lord Balem for his estate." It bowed, and the four advocates arranged themselves together for an initial information exchange.

Jupiter had wondered how long this part would take, but two minutes of expressionless silence seemed to be it. Oma and Robin exchanged head-tilts. Jery stepped back. "All advocates, please." The seven remaining advocates arranged themselves in an outer circle, and the android communication resumed.

This time it took maybe five minutes. Advocate Jery said, "We have reached agreement that the absolute settlements in Queen Seraphi's will at the time of her first death are to be honored." Titus and Kalique kept poker faces, and Jupiter hoped she did. Fine, everybody got to keep the stuff Seraphi had meant them to keep.

There was more, but it added up to pronouncements that Jupiter, as Queen Seraphi's Recurrence, was the senior Abrasax primary, and therefore had charge of House Abrasax property, and also Balem's property, until she transferred it to another primary as might further the interests of House Abrasax. Jupiter hung onto her poker face, because now she had some good bargaining chips.

That had all been the easy part. Now Jupiter had to hope Titus and Kalique would take the deals she offered.

"Advocates Jery and Nika, please confer with Advocate Flave for Titus." After the marriage-and-murder scheme he'd almost pulled off, Jupiter had figured that either she had to murder him back — and she wasn't Abrasax enough to do it right — or she had to give him a reason to want her alive.

Jery, Nika and Flave did about a minute of the silent-staring communication. Jupiter had no idea if Titus knew any of what they were talking about, or cared. Over where Kalique was radiating serene affability, an advocate murmured something inaudible to her. Kalique glanced at Jupiter and nodded once.

Flave talked to Titus, quietly enough that Jupiter couldn't hear the words. Then Titus said, with an attempt at light disbelief that didn't quite come off, "Jupiter Jones, my advocate says your advocate says you're buying my four planets, in order to satisfy House Phorcyx. Do I get any choice in this?"

Jupiter shrugged. "You could choose to deal with House Phorcyx yourself. I'm told Phorcyx is nearly ready to take possession of your person to render you for the Regenex soaking your tissues, in compensation for the Cs and time they've lent you." Advocate Nika had known a surprising amount about House Phorcyx.

Advocate Flave nodded its auburn-curled head, flashing white teeth amid another crimson smile, this time toward Titus.

Jery added, "Her Majesty also proposes to transfer title of two lucrative mining properties to you, under stewardship to protect your interests."

"And you get to keep whatever's left of your clipper," added Jupiter.

Titus looked like an actor who'd missed a cue. "Why are you doing this?"

"I'm not inclined to excuse murder plots against any Abrasax primary. Not from Phorcyx against you, but especially," said Jupiter sweetly, "not against me. As long as I'm alive and healthy, you get income. If I die or disappear, your steward gets the properties and all the income, and anything else she can take out of you."

Famulus had stayed behind Titus, nearly invisible, but now she stepped up, coppery sequins flashing on her barely-there gown. "I'm his steward."

"She is," said Titus, abruptly. "Handle all this tedious nonsense through her."

"Not for this." Jupiter lifted a hand toward Kalique, whose air of utter serenity expanded into the entire meeting circle. "I'm appointing Kalique Abrasax. Or, I could 'cast you into the void.'"

"Ah," he said, and just like that Titus went back to beautiful gestures and a soulful-eyed look. "Is this about your skyjacker? Or because I called you gullible?"

"Well," said Jupiter, "maybe I can be gullible. That's why I'm offering you an income and a steward instead of letting House Phorcyx have you for a sponge."

"And besides, it would be so _final_ ," said Kalique. "It would look as though Abrasax primaries can't work together. I feel we should deal with Titus within the family."

"And render me for Abrasax?"

"Just so, Brother."

"Meanwhile," said Jupiter, "I believe Advocate Jery has an inventory to discuss with you. You still hold a few items Seraphi willed to her Recurrence. I may have uses for them."

After an advocate from the Ministry of Title Transfers portalled down to attend to the few title transfers to and from Titus, he and Famulus left with as little ceremony as the Hall allowed. Advocate Flave proceeded to thank Jupiter fulsomely for Abrasax cooperation in discharging Titus's debts and took its leave with the property sheaves in hand. Jupiter had had to transfer four mobile refineries to Phorcyx and add a hefty amount in Cs, but now she had absolute title to four Terrsie planets that would have been harvested, ripe or not, in the near future.

That left Kalique.

Jupiter said, to lay the ground, "At present I'm devoting my attention to Earth and its system. However, I have responsibility for a great many Abrasax properties now. I hope you will take stewardship of them, both for your own profit and for the continuing interests of House Abrasax."

Kalique, still enacting serenity central, said, "Dear Jupiter, I agree. I'm sure the advocates can work out all the details we need."

"Thank you." Jupiter's five advocates, and the black-suited Oma and Mori, and Kalique's three, went into silent communication for several minutes, until Jery stepped back, caught Jupiter's eyes, and nodded toward Kalique's advocates.

Robin spoke aloud first. "Before the matter of stewardship may be finalized, I note that at the time of Lord Balem's death, some five seeded planets were contracted to be transferred absolutely to Lady Kalique. It is the position of the Ministry of Title Transfer that the contract is valid and must be honored."

It was news to Jupiter, but probably not to Kalique, who didn't turn an eyelash at the announcement. Jupiter beckoned to Jery and Gwill and asked, quietly, "Did Balem get something in exchange? Is this recorded in his estate?" The contract seemed suspiciously convenient for Kalique.

Jery said, "The contract terms include payment already received by Lord Balem, and financial considerations owed from Lady Kalique to Lord Balem — to his estate — in the future. Those are both noted in the updated estate inventory."

Jupiter looked toward Bob. "Would it be worth delaying the contract approval until I can get a Title Transfer advocate to argue with Advocate Robin?"

Bob said, still quietly, "Not on this one. Robin has it tied up and sealed, or she wouldn't even mention it. The compensation for the planets is realistic. However the contract originated, it's valid now according to Title Transfer."

If the value exchange was reasonable, Jupiter decided she would go along. Financial considerations (meaning spendable Cs) might be very useful, since so many of the solid assets were in holding. She raised her voice. "I agree with the Ministry of Title Transfer on this matter. Please amend the Abrasax inventory accordingly." It meant that Kalique had more Terrsie planets now. What did she want them for? Did Jupiter need to get them back?

Kalique was listening to her Advocate Jay, still affable and serene. Good. Jupiter and Advocates Jery and Kale had outlined three linked contracts. For Abrasax assets that weren't planets, Kalique would oversee management and take a cut of the income, with Advocate Kale's assistance. For the human-seeded planets from Balem's estate, now five fewer, Jupiter retained complete control over harvests, but any other income Kalique could discover, like gourmet spices or catchy games, was all hers.

(The contract allowed Jupiter to discover "other income" too. She bet the Aegis and Legion medics would be really happy about surgical glue, for instance. And maybe she'd "discover" yo-yos or slinkies. If Kalique got competitive about who found what, it would keep her focused on something that wasn't harvesting humans. Kalique didn't like thinking about killing real people. Now she wouldn't have to. Meanwhile, Advocate Kale should keep her approximately honest.)

The third contract, and maybe they were getting to it now, asked for some of Kalique's Terrsie planets to be transferred to Jupiter. Cerise should be worth a few of those. Kalique had switched to a sharply interested expression, and she was whispering with her group.

Finally she said, "Dear Jupiter, your terms are quite as generous as I expected. Could you tell me something more about what you want in the third contract?"

Jupiter had made sure she was ready to discuss this part of the negotiation. "Third Estate planets advancing toward real science are likely to produce amusing or even useful items we might bring to Orous. I want to be able to follow their development on my own schedule, even if it means delaying a harvest to take advantage of other avenues of profit."

Kalique was all affable negotiation. "That's a good insight. I see that you're offering Alcazar Cerise in exchange, and of course you know my interest there. I feel it's my home. At the same time, seeded planets are Abrasax' traditional assets, and it would be silly of me to relinquish any of them."

"You have five from Balem now," Jupiter pointed out. "And Alcazar Cerise would be worth a great deal to anyone. However, let me consult with Advocate Jery for a moment."

She had a fallback. "Jery, go to the second version of the Cerise contract, the one asking for more planets but with a sell-back provision." Thinking it out had included some hard questions. If Kalique would be allowed to buy the planets back later, how much later? How long should Jupiter keep them before (she silently hoped) laboratory Regenex made human harvests unnecessary? A century? Two centuries? Five? Jery had pointed out that Jupiter herself might expect to live millennia, possibly many millennia.

Wow. And maybe it could be true, but not the way Jery meant.

She couldn't tell the senior advocate for House Abrasax about a project to replace Regenex, the traditional and biggest source of Abrasax income. She couldn't bring herself to say she'd use Regenex as it was. She'd just said, "Make it a thousand years," and Jery had nodded approvingly. Orous years weren't quite Earth years, but close enough. "Please also make sure the contract is explicit that if I die or disappear, all property and planets I hold absolutely, including Earth, will disappear from Abrasax ownership." The Maximilian Observatory Fund was only a name and account number Jery had designated for her, but it belonged to Jupiter Jones, not House Abrasax.

Jery had only said, "Ah," and nodded, still approvingly. "Indeed, Ma'am. One would prefer that you achieve many more millennia."

At that, Jupiter hadn't known if she should be appalled, or touched, or if it was just Jery acting the way the Orous Entitled expected, but she'd said "Thank you" anyway.

Now Kalique, after hearing the revised contract from her own advocates, was hesitating prettily instead of arguing. Jupiter went to her next little push. "I'm sure you appreciate that Cerise is a considerable value. I see that your jewels today are from Cerise itself, and of course they suit you beautifully."

"Oh, thank you."

"Are you worried that I'd claim anything Cerise has produced already, like the tourmalines? They're all Abrasax assets in holding, after all. But, you discovered them and made them valuable. Cerise is the showplace of Abrasax, and you should have it and all of its products, if you're to continue representing Abrasax as you've been doing, on Orous and everywhere."

Kalique said, carefully, "I expect you will want to take your place among the Entitled."

There'd been a time when Jupiter would have given her right arm for access to the society lifestyle a highrise condo owner took for granted. She still thought having her own crown jewels was neat, and the space yacht was totally fantastic, but there was so much more to it. She could also see, by now, that people being kind to her wasn't the same as her fitting in with them. She might never fit in with people like Kalique and Titus and Balem, and maybe that was all right.

So she said, just as carefully, "That could happen, but later. I don't think I want someone who's still mostly a Terrsie klutz to be the Abrasax primary among the Entitled. Your presence for Abrasax is established, and it should continue. If I take on such a role, in time, I hope you won't mind if I look to you as a model."

"Dear Jupiter," sighed Kalique. "You were Seraphi. You seem to have a very modest idea of your abilities."

Jupiter was pretty sure she'd outpaced her current abilities, but she still had an idea on her backup list. "Would you like to finalize the contract with a personal exchange? I don't claim anything from Cerise, but I'd accept a gift of some tourmalines for my wardrobe, if you'll accept the Abrasax rubies. Like Cerise, they'll be yours for your lifetime."

"Well," said Kalique. "That's an excellent argument, I must admit."

She hadn't said yes. "One last thing. When Titus offered me Seraphi's diamond ring, it was an insult and a threat. I hesitate to offer any of the diamonds to you because remembering him is so distasteful. However…"

Kalique didn't lose her cool, because that was never going to happen, but she gave an encouraging smile. "Oh. I'm ready to forget Titus."

"I want to keep one or two pieces of the set, to remind me of what I've learned. However… the larger pieces, necklaces and so on… I believe they're called "The Waterfall of Light…" Kalique nodded. "Those could be yours to hold and display. You would do them justice."

"Ahhh," said Kalique. "Cerise and diamonds. And the six planets are yours, but I can buy them back later."

"If you want to. You might have enough of your own, by then, not to care."

"I suppose I might," said Kalique. "Very well. Let's portal up and seal all these transfers."

# # #

Diomika Tsing added Gemma Chatterjee to the list of crew who had access to the record of yesterday's meeting with Her Majesty Jupiter, sealed the change with a fingerprint, and waited confidently. About a minute later, she received Gemma's message: "In your office? Respects, G. Chatterjee."

Diomika signaled "Yes," and unlocked the door from her desk. The 3D spiral galaxy that rotated gently in the doorway stopped and expanded abruptly to show an empty patch framed by random stars.

Her data officer entered. "Hello, Captain. Were you 'sleeping on it' before you let me have that?" Her smile was bland enough to convey frustration; Gemma usually had immediate access to meeting records. "The conversation brings up a lot of possibilities."

"Many. An infinity. We're dicing with the future of Orous. I'd be a fool not to ask the best data analyst I know what possibilities she sees."

Gemma said, back to her usual dispassionate calm, "I see humans, unpredictable human variables, that affect all long-term possibilities. It isn't just your actions, or Jupiter's, that determine a future. Everyone is taking actions and hoping for outcomes."

"You're saying no one outcome can be predicted, but I'd like to estimate some probabilities based on my possible actions."

"Ah," said Gemma. Chatterjees used human conversation as precisely as any other communication channel, including its punctuation. "What are your possible actions?"

"I've already given Jupiter information and support as a routine courtesy, which I think could make her more successful in claiming her inheritance as a Recurrence. You helped."

"You did that before she ever said she was interested in laboratory Regenex."

"I did. It was a courtesy to an Entitled." To a scared, determined young woman flailing for air as a Great House queen. "And it's very likely her project, if it succeeds, will benefit Aegis members. The consequences after that worry me. I'm afraid…"

"I doubt that."

Diomika smiled, and knew she wasn't _afraid_. "You're right. I'm looking for an optimum course of action, not a safe one." She'd reached the core of the problem. "If I support Jupiter, and the Great Houses come into conflict, I wouldn't be neutral. Jupiter is a new force in the gyre, but if she still has Abrasax or other Houses behind her, that's a faction."

Gemma, who never had to pause for thought, sat silent for a long moment. The galaxy in the doorway circled through half its sequence. "Dee," she said, "Would you defect to a faction? Would you take all of us and the ship into a faction?"

"If it comes to that… I can't be certain now, but I'm considering how it might go. I think what Jupiter has to offer might be worth it."

"Long term," said Gemma, "everything is chaos. Given any set of variables."

"Is that why the Entitled don't think like we do? Everything is chaos for them anyway?"

"Yes."

"How long have you known that, Gee?"

"It's a private deduction. Meeting Jupiter when she's so young gave me data to confirm it."

"She wants to make meaningful changes, despite inevitable chaos."

"Yes," said Gemma. "She still feels bound by time."

"She also refused Regenex treatment. I can respect that."

Gemma gave her a look of inquiry.

"Even when it's used only for gross trauma, Regenex costs more lives than it saves if you number the Terrsie lives. As things are, I value my crew's lives over Terrsies who are already dead. That's how I live with it." Diomika, long ago, had spent a long night making that decision. One didn't judge the Entitled, but Diomika judged herself. "If there's a better bargain, I want it."

"I believe not all Aegis or Legion officers are so fastidious."

"Not all, but some are," said Diomika. "More of them might decide they're fastidious if they have a choice of Regenex that supports the Second Estate, instead of the First."

"Jupiter will have to produce Regenex suitable for First Estate use, as well, if she wants them not to make their own. In the long term…" She waited for Diomika to fill in the rest.

Diomika said, "She'll have to win over the First Estate, too. I think it will be worth it."

Gemma waited another long moment, gauging who-knew-what outcomes. "What do you want us to do?"

Diomika raised her eyebrows. "Are you accepting my lead?"

Gemma said, "I've thought about it. I'm with you, Dee. Captain."

"Let's see what comes out of the Abrasax heirs' meeting today. Her Majesty Jupiter has Her Majesty Seraphi's backing, but she's completely new at this game."

Gemma said, "She doesn't know the First Estate, and she doesn't know how impossible her project should be. Maybe that's good."

"A human factor?" asked Diomika.

"Jupiter is very much a human factor," agreed Gemma.

# # #

In the Department of Title Transfer, Jupiter and Kalique and an expanding crowd of advocates spent an hour sealing sheaves. Jupiter sent Advocate Bob and two guards to follow Titus and fetch the diamonds. When they returned (the guards looking satisfied, Bob in glassy-eyed logic shock from actually listening to Titus) with a carry-case, Jupiter couldn't resist opening it. Well, she had to confirm the inventory, didn't she?

She gasped when she saw the hundreds of diamonds glittering against a dark plush background. It _was_   like a river of light, a starry night, a completely separate universe framed by the Ministry's rather pedestrian tabletop. Kalique watched her, amused. "Second thoughts, Jupiter? Those are truly magnificent pieces, you can see."

"No second thoughts," said Jupiter, swallowing. "I promised them to you, and besides, Titus really was a, um, cad." She picked out the huge vulgar ring and a pair of spark-dripping earrings that looked to be worth an entire high-rise condo. The ring was for spite, but she'd always wanted earrings like that. She turned the case and all the rest of the Waterfall toward Kalique to give her the full effect. "You're welcome to them. I hope I'll see you wearing them."

"Oh, my," said Kalique. "Oh, yes, I'd almost forgotten the impression these make. They'll be worth it for the eye-value." She eyed Jupiter's outfit. "You'd look well enough in rubies, but if you'll give up the set we talked about, I know of some tourmalines that won't disgrace you. It's good of you to remember what I like." Jupiter nodded, and closed the case on a waterfall of sparkling light brighter than the milky way.

Even after all that, Jupiter didn't think she ought to trust Kalique, or that Kalique trusted her. Bob and Kale exchanged silent data for several minutes, before Kale followed Advocates Robin, Jay and Hiron toward Kalique's lander in its own courtyard, opposite Jupiter's pinnace.

Jupiter left the Ministry of Title Transfer with her retinue, Milla carrying a stack of sheaves that recorded the titles and inventories and stewardship contracts with Kalique's ornate ring-of-planets seal alongside Jupiter's ornate sun-and-orbit.

She and Caine would have a few luxurious hours to themselves, but she was also looking forward to home, to Bolotnikovs crowded around the dinner table. Somehow, the prospect of cleaning houses for the next week sounded quite refreshing.

# # #

She sat down with Caine to a private lunch, with a view of the full moon and a sunlit Earth on which Jupiter could spot the Great Lakes through the haze of clouds. Caine told her about being a young legion recruit with mad tracking skills and no military decorum. "The next action was in the Bucephal system, where they wanted to catch a harvest pirate… I'm sorry, that's not something you'd want to hear about."

"Are there pirated harvests?" asked Jupiter, with sick fascination.

"Yeah, it happens, when two Houses dispute ownership and one wants to grab the advantage and brings in a mobile refinery…"

Phorcyx, as of two hours ago, owned four mobile refineries, each near a Terrsie planet that wasn't theirs and wasn't going to be theirs. She was responsible for those planets, now.

"What is it? Your Majesty, don't look like that…"

"Would House Phorcyx do that kind of thing?" she asked, feeling cold. "Everything I've heard about them isn't very… ethical. Would they just harvest a planet if they thought they could get away with it?"

Caine frowned. "Maybe." He frowned further, nearly as disquieted as Jupiter felt. "Do you think they'd con you like that? The exchange terms seemed pretty clear to me."

"I think I'm the new kid, and a Terrsie besides, and they might try it to see if I'll even notice a con. I think most people can't tell one tube of Regenex from another without a label, so they're likely to get away with it once it's done. Maybe I'm suspicious and paranoid, but I want to check this out right now. We sealed those contracts a couple of hours ago, and Advocate Flave left as soon as it was done. They could be starting in by now…"

Caine touched the ping contact that called Milla, or anyone else Jupiter needed.

Advocate Jery, summoned, said, "Ma'am, you are correct. The contracts are explicit that you retain ownership of the planets, including their complete biosphere populations, and the planets' systems, excepting only the refineries. House Phorcyx is responsible for removing the refineries within a set time."

"What if they harvest the humans on those planets, before they leave? By Orous laws it would be theft, wouldn't it?" Jery nodded. "What can I do to prevent Phorcyx from taking anything except the refineries? Do the systems include monitor stations or something, that would warn us? If not, can we send Abrasax ships to do the same thing?"

She took a deep breath and made her voice emphatic, tamped down from angry-and-frightened. It was a trick that had kept her from screaming on other occasions. "I don't want redress afterward. I want the humans on the planets alive and un-harvested. Untouched."

"Ah," said Jery. "A new owner may send monitors in the spirit of precaution to protect a planet's population and assess its system. It is also understood as a courtesy, that a seller may assist a buyer toward timely retrieval of transferred property, for instance, by escorting it to the outer part of a system it should no longer inhabit. Abrasax monitor ships would be suitable."

"They're small like ferries, but with more teeth," said Caine. "For defense, of course. They'll call for Aegis forces if they see any unauthorized action, anything except the refineries moving out. Aegis crews are always happy to stop piracy."

"How?" asked Jupiter, sickly fascinated again. Did space ships and space empires mean space battles?

"The Aegis presence is usually enough. A cruiser has more firepower than Phorcyx's transport ships ought to."

Ought to? So, maybe they wouldn't escalate over piracy, but nobody knew if they could? "Should I check this with Captain Tsing?"

"It's okay to notify her after you've sent out Abrasax monitor ships. She doesn't command any other Aegis ships, so it's not her direct responsibility, but it's best to keep her informed."

"I see," said Jupiter. This was going pretty fast, but she could kind of still follow it. "First, Jery, as soon as possible please send Abrasax monitor ships to each of the four planets recently transferred to me from Titus. Should I contact anyone else to send the message faster, or give the ships specific instructions? Do you need any other authorization?"

"Ma'am, you may command Abrasax ships to any Abrasax system at any time," said Jery, as if saying Earth's sky was blue. "It will be done immediately. I will convey your wishes: the planets are to be protected from untoward action by House Phorcyx, or anyone else."

"Good," said Jupiter, still tightly keyed up, trying not to show how angry she'd been. Maybe Jery could tell, but he didn't say so. "Thank you. How fast will they get to those systems?"

"Within a few minutes. Perhaps a quarter-hour at the most."

Portal transportation was another thing that was _unreal_ , but she was getting used to it. Kind of.

"Please start that immediately. Tell me if there are any problems with sending the monitor ships, tell me what they report, and tell me immediately if any Aegis ships are called to those systems."

"Yes, Ma'am." Jery bowed and departed.

Jupiter took a bite of some kind of Orous-raised extra-tender meat layered with garlicky herbs and creamy flower petals, let it dissolve over her tongue, and swallowed, mechanically. She couldn't taste it, couldn't take another bite, not yet. "Caine?"

"Your Majesty," he said, ready to listen and asking for nothing else.

She tried to smile. "Thank you. Again." He nodded. "Do you think I should put monitors into all the Abrasax Third Estate systems? Anyone else could get the same idea."

"Systems with the more valuable planets will already have monitor stations. For those that don't, it seems a good precaution to add monitor-ship sweeps."

"Good. Because I'm going to do that." She leaned across the table and brushed a finger over his mouth. "I guess I have to go talk to Captain Tsing. I'll ask for a meeting tomorrow, because I don't want to take up much time now." She gave him a look meant to convey the rest of her message. From his answering look, he got it.

# # #

Tsing said, when Jupiter pinged her through the yacht's channels, "Good afternoon, Your Majesty," in a very official voice. Okay, this was an official channel. It looked like the Captain was on the bridge.

"The big conference today went okay, mostly. I've negotiated some exchanges with the other two primary heirs and a creditor, so I'm responsible, and they're not, for more planets. I need to tell you that as a precaution, I've sent Abrasax monitor ships to four Terrsie-planet systems where House Phorcyx is due to pick up mobile industrial equipment. I'll also send monitors to other Abrasax planets that don't already have them."

Tsing's dark face became less impassive. "Ah. That's probably a good move. Just as a precaution."

"I'm told it's a courtesy to a buyer, for me to ensure that facilities they now own are ready for transport and not in use after the sheaves are sealed."

"So it is. Do you have other questions we might need to discuss?"

"I'll have some later, tomorrow," said Jupiter. "I, um, would it be polite to ask if you would meet with me on your ship again? Is it appropriate if I host instead?"

"It would be most gracious of Your Majesty to visit my ship at an arranged time. You've said your schedule is usually full before late afternoon. Perhaps you'd consider tomorrow at fourth watch, ahhh, 6 pm? You would be welcome to bring Sergeant Wise, of course."

Jupiter smiled without thinking, at the name. "Thank you. I really appreciate the Aegis presence."

Tsing smiled too, a real smile. "I'm glad to hear it." At a bridge station in the background, Phylo looked up and gave Jupiter a nod, while Tsing said, "Until tomorrow, Ma'am."

"Until then," said Jupiter, and closed the channel. She still had the afternoon with Caine.

# # #

When Jupiter got back to her suite the lunch table had been whisked away so that she and Caine could sit together eating spoonfuls from a shared bowl of sweet-creamy-fruity something that went down easily. Jupiter talked about being a too-smart girl who didn't have a birth certificate and or a legitimate ID because that took more risk and money than her family could afford. Vladie had got her a fairly convincing ID, but the Entitled sigil for Earth on her wrist was the first official link she had to any part of the planet.

"I've observed that you don't do anything by halves," said Caine, raising her wrist with the sigil to brush it with his lips.

She snickered. "That's the funny thing. Everything was only halves and halfway, before. I had a family but not a country, I had a job but I didn't know what I wanted to do, I was pretty enough to pick up boys but not pretty enough for anyone to stay with—"

"That has changed," said Caine.

"Oh." Jupiter looked up at him, at the neat beard and strong nose and dark-set eyes. "I'm glad if you want to stay. I…" There'd have to be a talk, later, about telling her what he wanted even if she might not want the same thing, but not yet. "I'm really glad."

At the moment, anyway, they wanted the same thing.

# # #

An hour or more later, Caine nuzzled the back of her neck in a way that meant he had to disentangle himself instead of wrapping them around each other again. Jupiter realized she wasn't angry any more, was ready for the next thing, as she rolled a bit to let him loose. "What'cha have to do?"

"To make sure Your Majesty's guards can handle themselves on the ground in Chicago, I must take them to Chicago and let them practice. An hour in the park, while you and I eat ice cream cones there, should be an easy way to start."

They'd talked about this last night. Jupiter needed a discreet-distance escort on Earth. Caine had said then, and he was right, dammit, "Your home and family on Earth need someone who knows what dangers to look for and how to signal for effective help."

Now Jupiter sat up on the thousand-thread-count, dove-gray sheets. "This morning was like playing for monopoly money, but everyone else is playing for keeps and I'm not going to second-guess your judgment about it. Except, I want to add one person to be guarded as much as my family is, or me. That's my Regenex researcher."

"Is she the other guest on the ship? The guards should have a chance to see her, so they'll know she's one of your, you might say, inner circle."

Jupiter nodded. "Tell them she's like a sister to me. That's how much they should guard her. I don't want her in danger. I especially don't want her project known." Milla had said that Lyrica chattered about housekeeping matters and a need for blank recordable sheaves, but nothing else. "Later, maybe soon, she'll need a lab for the first experiments, and that will need security. I wouldn't trust it to anyone but you and a team you choose."

# # #

Lyrica was sitting slumped back in the green chair that was her chosen work area, with more sheaves on the nearby table and two in her lap. She looked up at Jupiter's entrance, blinking. "It's good to see you, ah, Jupiter. I have some provisional progress to report."

Jupiter could see her repressing a yawn. "Did you stay up all night?"

"Mostly. I'm feeling wonky now. I think— I _think_   the new equations will hold together and refute the faw… flawed theory. I want to… re-check them before I make any promises."

She sounded tipsy, but all the evidence was that she'd just worked around the clock. Maybe twice. Jupiter remembered Mom talking about mathematics keeping her up overnight like that. "I'll be off the ship most of the time for a few days. You should sleep and re-check anything you need to before we talk again. Everything here is still confidential, even from the staff. The project needs a cover name, something like, um…"

"Recombinant Var… Variations," said Lyrica. "Sounds like making better splices. Or something." She giggled. "I'm sorry to be so incoherent, ahh, you've caught me at the end of a long session. Ahh, do you have questions right now?"

"A couple of questions, but don't answer them until you've slept. First, everything you do will have to be inside a tight confidentiality bubble. Would any of the lab facilities in Earth system support your early lab work? If you could have any equipment you need brought in? That would make security much easier."

"I think I remember a lab space. And Admin Halan can get the kind of soup vats and sequencers I'll need. Ahmm, if I'm right, the rest of the plan is just mechanics. Half a year before we can test it. Another half-year for real results, even if everything goes exactly right." She leaned forward, breathing and stretching her spine, and let the chair push her upright. "Halan might need to know about it, even if the ship staff don't."

"We'll see. Think about assistants, and who you'd trust."

Lyrica said, "Confidentiality, I understand. That's in my contract already, but this is more, hm, original than anything I did at the refinery. I need a few days to write out a plan."

"Sure," said Jupiter. "Um, you have a contract? With Abrasax?" She'd never been an employer. Before. "We'll have to look at it. You're doing more important work now, and it's more dangerous."

"Yes," said Lyrica, not giggling and not yawning. "This is the ride of a lifetime. If I'm wrong, I know you'll be disappointed. If I'm right, _everyone in the gyre_   will be mad like swarming wasps."

"Everyone else," said Jupiter. "Meanwhile, I don't know how your compensation works, but I'll talk to Jery and increase it starting now. Maybe double. Separate from the research expenses. If your project succeeds, it will be worth a lot more than that to me, and, I promise, to you."

"If I can make Regenex in a lab, all the Great Houses will be after both of us," said Lyrica, speaking clearly now. "So, I won't turn down a reward for taking the risk. And, I want to review security arrangements anywhere I work. Jupiter, I can't thank you enough for taking a chance on my hypothesis, but both of us have to stay alive to make it happen."

"Yeah," said Jupiter. "I really want it to work."

"I really want to be right about it. One thing I'll need for the laboratory is a new genome inventory," said Lyrica. "I had to leave mine behind when we evacuated."

Wow, something else Jupiter hadn't thought about. "What else did you lose?"

"There were some clothes and things, but Milla and Bari made sure I have enough to be comfortable. The suite here is the plushest place I've ever stayed."

"Ask them for anything you need for yourself. Make sure you eat and sleep. You're allowed out of the suite, in case you weren't sure. Is there anyone you want to send messages to like, I don't know, your family or people who expect to hear from you?"

"Not now. Maybe later. I need to sleep, first. Should I ping your sheaf," she fumbled a blue-black message sheaf from under a pile of record-only plain ones, "ahhh, tomorrow?"

"As long as nobody else can tell what the message is about."

"That's right. Security." Lyrica sighed and sat back. "We'll make history, you know." She relaxed, nearly asleep already. "And building Regenex for splices and different tissues will be fun."

# # #

Caine and Jupiter and two guards grav-beamed down to Chicago, into the warm, humid Sunday afternoon. Caine had chosen guards who looked human enough to blend in (and he wore a sweatband over his ear tips). They were all Legion veterans with security experience. He said he could smell honesty, and he'd trust the four he'd chosen. Jupiter thought maybe one of them had a bit of lion spliced in, with his big dark streaky mane of hair and flexible grace. He went by Leo, anyway. He and Elen, a woman who was his partner and not his mate, both looked Hispanic enough for the Humboldt Park neighborhood, enough to help Jupiter and Caine blend in.

Jupiter hung her jacket over one shoulder, since it still carried all her sheaves and links and three pieces of jewelry that were, to a casual eye, too overdone to be real stones. Just inside the park, they paused. Caine said, "Elen, Leo, take a few minutes to get your bearings. We're in Humboldt Park, as on the maps you've seen. Later Jupiter and I will walk east to her family's house. You should be able to follow us at a distance."

Elen stared up at perfectly ordinary trees and multiple swooping, chattering birds. "Ooooh." She was wearing something that would pass for jeans and a soft tunic with a bee logo that was pretty much a t-shirt, and whatever pockets she had didn't show at all. Like Jupiter's didn't.

Leo, also in a gray tunic and more-or-less jeans, surveyed the grass dotted with trees and occasional large rocks bearing statues. "Are there—" A trio of tie-dye-shirted bicycle riders, blaring Beatles music, rattled past them and toward the trees. He watched them go. "I guess there are." He went goggle-eyed when an aggressive pigeon landed less than two steps away and whortled at him.

"It's just a bird. It thinks you'll feed it," said Jupiter. "Don't, unless you want to be mobbed by birds."

"No, Ma'am."

"You should call me Jupiter, here," said Jupiter, firmly. "It's like the clothes, to let you blend in."

"Yes, Ma'am, Jupiter." Caine gave him a look. "Yes, Jupiter."

Elen turned back to them from her own survey. "Yes, Jupiter."

Jupiter nodded. "That's good."

Caine said, "You two, move out and follow. If I signal, close in. When Jupiter is back in her family's house, I'll meet you again."

# # #

The strategy of letting Mikka see Caine on Friday from a half-block away kind of backfired, since now Mikka and Nino were on the lookout for them when Caine brought Jupiter home. Jupiter was thankful they'd walked from the park, far enough to lend a convincingly sweaty aura to the summer-evening stroll from the carefully-vague location where Caine "lived."

Caine smiled at the two women, almost shy, while Jupiter introduced: "Aunt Nino, Mikka, this is my boyfriend, Caine Wise. Caine, my aunt Nino Bolotnikov and my cousin Mikka Bolotnikov."

Caine smiled again, ducking his head in the green sweatband that made his hair redder and his eyes greener. "Good evening, ladies. I'm very pleased to meet you both."

"I've been hoping to meet you," said Nino, as he shook her hand, and then Mikka's, treating them both like porcelain. "Do you happen to know what your birthday is?"

"Aunt Nino!" hissed Jupiter. Mikka rolled her eyes.

Caine just said, with a bit of hesitation that could be taken for sadness, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I don't know it. I was adopted, and the records were lost."

"Ah," Nino closed her eyes briefly, "you feel like an Aries or a Sagittarius."

"That could be," said Caine, politely. "Ms. Nino, your niece Jupiter is a great lady, and very beautiful, which I see is a family trait. My respects to you all." He nodded to Mikka, almost bowed to Nino, and kissed Jupiter's fingertips with a flourish. "Until next time."

"Wow," said Mikka, as he strode away. "Jupe, that is a major-league hunk. Where did you find him?"

"He found me," said Jupiter, wondering if the new guards would be around tonight, or tomorrow while she cleaned houses.

"Aleksa says to tell you, you must eat dinner here, at least, after a whole weekend out."

"She's right." said Jupiter. "Let's go in. Do you need me to set the table?"

# # #

"So," said Mom, when everyone had had a first serving of dinner. "Tell us about the man. A little."

"He, um, rescued me when there was an accident at the, um, well, the fertility clinic." Uncle Vassily sent Vladie a look, and Vladie winced. "He got me out, and he talked me down from being mad and scared. That took a while, because I was really scared, and then I was really mad." Vladie winced again.

"And, well, I liked him. And we spent all this weekend together." Jupiter felt herself blush. Mikka sighed ostentatiously.

"He's a nice man," said Nino, with perfect confidence. "I think he must be an Aries."

"Maybe so," said Jupiter. Mom was careful never to laugh at Nino's astrology. _Those are her symbols. Those are her feelings. Don't ignore her feelings, or yours._ "But now I'm home. Tomorrow we do… what houses do we have tomorrow?"

"Three," said Uncle Vassily. "A full day's work."

"I'd work a full day and sing about it, if I had that man waiting for me," said Mikka.

It was the first time her cousin had been envious, openly envious, of Jupiter. Sometimes the family wasn't so bad.

The rest of the meal, cucumber soup, dumplings, fish loaf, summer squash, and finally Medovukha in little glasses, went by while Jupiter listened to everyone's business and tried to keep herself from blurting out her own. She needed to talk to people who happened to be androids, or space police captains, or part bee, or part wolf, about how to protect whole planets of humans from being harvested like wheat from fields. Okay, tomorrow. Tonight she laughed at Aunt Irina's shopping stories and nodded respectfully at Uncle Vassily.

# # #

In her own bed, thinking instead of sleeping, Jupiter was sure she'd be happy to go back to just cleaning things. It was, in its own way, restful. But, why couldn't someone who "owned" that inventory sheaf full of planets and space factories and asteroid mines have enough Earth money to buy a good computer for Mom, or redeem the giant TV for Vladie (since that was what he wanted, the idiot), or to buy at least a knock-off of her favorite dress in Katherine's closet, the kind she could wear with worth-a-highrise-condo earrings?

What if the family could own their house? Would Uncle Vassily want to retire if he didn't have to make a mortgage payment every month, or would he like to expand the cleaning business? Would he be any good as more than a family boss? Well, would he be happy?

Would she be happy if she had enough money to go to college? Because if she could buy a house… She'd need to be a legal resident. Could money buy that? From cleaning clients, she'd heard (that was, overheard) hints that _enough_   money could buy anything. Even immigration papers? Twenty-four years late? For that, she'd have to work with Earth bureaucracy, and Advocate Bob couldn't help her there.

It was a dream, but it was a good dream.

# # #

 

CHAPTER 3

After Jupiter and Mom and Nino finished their last house on Monday, Jupiter stayed behind in Grant Park. She'd told Mom that Caine would meet her there, which was true, and then they'd look at the fountain or the museums or something, which was true but not complete. Mom knew it wasn't complete, but not quite how much.

So now she had a couple of hours to find something to eat. And Caine.

She pulled out the message sheaf: Marshal Ursula reported that Mr. Night had left via grav-beam to Kalique Abrasax' ferry F-beta-2. Milla had forwarded messages from four monitoring ships: No emergencies. Three of them reported no unexpected activity as Phorcyx brought pilots and skeleton crews to take over the refineries. Only one had found a Phorcyx ship already in the system and in the process of boarding crew onto its newly-acquired refinery near the inhabited planet. The Phorcyx crew had acknowledged the monitor ship's hail, declined the offer of assistance, and piloted the refinery away from the planet to portal out.

Jupiter sighed, releasing worries she'd tried not to think about. Maybe everything was up-and-up. Maybe she'd dodged a bullet by acting fast. It had been something she could do, and if anyone cared, she'd sent a message that she protected her planets.

Wait, she was a _space queen_ , and she gave away _rivers of diamonds_ , and she _owned_   planets complete with people, and she had to _protect them_. How was this her life? Forget _Star Trek_. She was doing better than Padmé in _Star Wars_. Maybe the whole thing was a dream?

She reached into her jacket pocket and found the spiky little lump of Titus's ring. She looked again at the sheaf in her hands that wasn't really a punked-out tablet. Marshal Apini invited her to an informal gathering at the end of the week, a send-off to his new Legion assignment. Kiza Apini sent regards and hoped Her Majesty Jupiter would attend. One message from Lyrica Daelos, dated only a couple of hours earlier, read, "The previous work looks good. Thank you again. I'll have a more detailed plan soon." Jupiter closed it and let the sheaf lie in her lap.

Did she like being a space queen? Better than cleaning houses?

Well, yes.

It wasn't boring. And she was doing something important, if she could save billions of humans. If it upset the society that made an industry of killing them, fine by Jupiter.

The last message on the sheaf said that Caine Wise would be pleased to join her for the evening whenever she liked.

Yeah. She liked. Jupiter pinged him back, and minutes later saw sparkles rain down and then Caine drifting Earthward, a few yards from where she stood. "Wow." He was gorgeous, and he was smiling at her. "Maybe we can find someplace less crowded and fly a little. Um. Maybe we can eat something first."

He nodded, solemn and beautiful. "Let us find a food vendor."

They crossed the big avenue toward museums and shops and cafés. "Sandwiches," said Jupiter. "Maybe a deli." They found a suitable storefront and ordered Cuban pressed sandwiches with everything. "Are Ron and Ozzy with you today?" Two men wearing bronze-gold t-shirts and black jeans could be seen, one on an opposite street corner, one down at the entrance to the park.

"Yes." Caine tapped his earpiece, and Ron looked away from the street sign and began moving with the rhythm of passers-by, and suddenly he was less noticeable.

"Good trick," said Jupiter.

"Yeah. They've never done this in Chicago, but they've done it before. You shouldn't notice them unless you need them."

Caine had paid for the sandwiches. "How do you get Earth, I mean, U.S. money? I guess you need an allowance for buying local food and stuff. How does it work?"

"Yesterday your Advocate Bob gave me expense cards for each of us to use in Chicago." He showed her a bronze-colored prepaid debit card with a Visa logo and number. "Bob told us that each one is loaded at first, like a tiny sheaf, with two hundred dollars, to be used for day-to-day expenses and small emergencies. It's, what you said, a local allowance."

"Okay," said Jupiter. "I'll talk to Bob about getting one for me. It sounds like he's learned a lot already. And now," she hopped up and down on the sidewalk to tease him, "we fly."

"Here?" He looked at the window-shoppers on either side of them.

"In the park," she said, and pointed, dramatically. "To the park!"

There were enough people around that it would have been rude to run, but they strolled briskly down the Parkway, past Ozzy pretending to ignore them on the grassy entrance triangle, toward the gardens where trees clustered thickly enough to disguise them as they lifted off on flying boots.

# # #

An hour later, they caught the Aegis cruiser's grav-beam in mid-air and were transported upward to the ship. Captain Tsing met them, with Gemma and Biron Agil. There were greetings, with some ear-twitching by the lycantants, before Tsing said, "Let's take the discussion into my office, if Jupiter pleases." Everyone just naturally moved with her.

In the office, today very much in its lighted-up holographic mode, a viewscreen showed the solar system out to beyond Neptune's sketched-in orbit into the Kuiper belt. Little symbols blinked here and there: planets, a couple of near comets, eight of the spiky Abrasax Industries symbols, and a triangular A-for-Aegis marking the ship itself, next to Earth.

Jupiter said, when everyone was seated, "In the meeting yesterday, the advocates confirmed that I was the senior Abrasax heir. By the end, the Abrasax primaries were in agreement. That is, agreements are on record. I still don't think I should trust Kalique, and I already know I don't trust Titus, but I'm dealing with them. It's… strange."

"Congratulations, Ma'am." said Tsing. "I'm glad to hear about the decision, if you are."

"I am," said Jupiter, "but… it's new. I'm not sure how to think about it, even though I know what I want to do."

Tsing, sitting beside the desk that appeared as a translucent schematic, raised her eyebrows in question. Gemma tilted her head.

"Kalique and Titus sealed the contracts and title transfers. Those are registered with the Title Transfer Ministry. I have a good part of what I wanted. But, everything at the meeting was so… so layered. Everything they said could have meant something else."

Gemma said, "Diplomacy is a communication style. You've had to learn it very quickly."

"The Great House primaries are predators," said Tsing. "If you hadn't shown them you're not prey, they'd have eaten you without mercy. You walked away with some prizes, and that's a victory." Biron caught Jupiter's eye and gave her a meaningful nod of agreement and, just maybe, respect.

Jupiter said, trying to be matter-of-fact through the impossibility of it, "I'm responsible for a lot of Third Estate planets now, including Earth. I'd like to get the Aegis perspective on how it's best to defend them. I'm told the Abrasax monitor ships and monitor stations will call the Aegis to deal with anything that could be piracy."

Biron said, "That's what we're here for."

Tsing's quick, fierce grin echoed the sentiment. "Any distress call from Abrasax will have a response in minutes. The Abrasax primaries weren't always in agreement in the past, but your request is quite clear."

"I hope it's unlikely the other Abrasax primaries will attempt piracy, but I can't be sure. From other Houses, I guess it's a possibility. I don't want those planets to be prey."

"Putting monitor ships into the systems that don't already have stations is a good start," said Tsing. "Were there any results from that? You were worried that House Phorcyx would try to take more than the you'd agreed to sell them, I thought."

"That's right. I want to keep the human populations safe. House Phorcyx only took away the refineries, but I didn't like that they went first to the only one near a system's planet, the highest-population planet of the four. That's when the monitors got there, and if Phorcyx was planning anything, they didn't do it."

"It was a reasonable precaution," said Tsing, "If it was needed, it was effective."

The echo of her own assessment was reassuring. "I'll make monitoring more obvious in all the systems." Jupiter took a breath and looked over at Caine, who gave her a _do it_   expression. "Captain, the meeting yesterday might seem to have resolved the House conflicts that made your presence here necessary, but… would it be possible for you and your ship to remain in Earth system until matters are more settled?"

Tsing said, very seriously, "Ma'am, I hoped to ask you that question. My crew and I are honored that you want the ship to remain in service to you." Gemma gave a solemn nod. Biron echoed it, and exchanged nods with Caine.

"I believe the Aegis presence ensures stability during this change." It was a nice way of saying that without Captain Tsing and her crew's advice, Jupiter would have been easy prey. She cleared her throat. "And, well, I still have security concerns." The large viewscreen showed planet Jupiter as a tiny dot marked by its curly four, but no Abrasax symbol. The Abrasax-owned stations now were all in the outer system except one Trojan asteroid.

Tsing nodded. "You're protecting all the Abrasax planets from harvest, if I understand this."

"All the planets I control. That's not even all of Abrasax' planets. I can't protect the Third Estate planets the other primaries hold, or any of the other Houses' planets," she took a breath, "except by making Regenex obsolete."

Biron's ears twitched. Gemma looked at Tsing and back at Jupiter. "How do you plan to do that?" she asked.

"I have a researcher who's working on a procedure to create Regenex in the laboratory. She's confident it can be done. I'm hoping she'll be able to make the first test samples in one of the laboratory stations in Earth system. If that works, we'll expand the testing."

"What kind of timeline do you have?" asked Tsing.

"Years," said Jupiter. "Maybe months for a limited test, but a year or more to do a full one, especially because the genetic components for several splice species are going to be part of the initial library." Biron's ears twitched again. Jupiter looked at Caine, and he nodded at her and twitched his ears back at Biron.

Jupiter went on, "I know it's a gamble. I'm taking it on because only a good copy of Regenex will stop the Entitled from killing Terrsie humans to make Regenex."

Tsing nodded. "I've been hoping you meant that. That, and making Regenex for splices and for trauma treatments." Jupiter gave her a decisive nod. "Those are the kinds of Regenex the Second Estate always needs. We use it, but many of us don't like knowing our lives cost other lives."

"So we have a reason to support your project." Biron didn't show teeth, but his smile was as fierce as Tsing's.

Tsing said, "We're with you. It's already our duty to protect you. Your project will eventually benefit the Aegis, as well as many others, and that's another reason to support you and maintain security about it."

Biron asked, carefully addressing the captain, "Ma'am? What's our long-term commitment to Her Majesty?"

Tsing looked at her two crew members, and at Jupiter and Caine. "We have a long-term commitment not to betray her. That's Aegis duty toward any Entitled at any time. To allow anyone to know of her project, outside us and Jupiter and Sergeant Wise, could incite aggression against her. It's also against the long-term interests of the Aegis."

Biron grinned, with teeth. "Ma'am. Yes, Ma'am." He flashed the grin at Jupiter as well.

"That's our formal duty," said Tsing, to Jupiter. "Ma'am, the ship will stay here to deter outside snooping while you set up the early part of the project. We'll keep in touch with you after your security team is fully in place," her eyes checked with Caine, who nodded once, "to offer whatever help we can as the project develops."

Jupiter leaned forward and the chair let her sit up very straight. "You hope it will succeed."

"I believe it's a worthy gamble," said Tsing. "Perhaps I can improve your chances of success."

"Thank you, Captain. That's… a great trust you're giving me. I believe it, too."

Gemma had been listening, looking more android in her perfect calm than Jupiter had seen before. She said, "It's a research project now, but it could start a wider change. The Entitled trade or sell the Regenex they don't use themselves, at high prices. If you can produce Regenex that isn't destructive and expensive, they'll lose a competitive advantage. It will destabilize the First Estate's economic hegemony."

Jupiter didn't get the last sentence, and her face must have shown it. Tsing said, "I agree that this isn't just an industrial innovation. The First Estate as a class control Regenex now, but if you sell it to a wider market, they won't. It's a kind of money, and you'll lower its value by creating more of it."

Jupiter didn't see why more Regenex was bad, if it wasn't from dead humans, but these people understood their society and she didn't. "The more I hear about this, the more careful I want to be about security."

Gemma said, "It can be a quiet revolution, if we keep it quiet. For a while." She and Tsing traded looks. "Ma'am, you'll be undermining the Great Houses' wealth, including your own."

Biron said, "If you bring a source of Regenex to the Second Estate, to the guilds, to medical practices and splice breeders, you'll have the Aegis and Legion on your side in any war."

A war? Jupiter didn't like the idea, but… "If?" she said weakly. Would a space war be worse than the human-farm industry? She really didn't know.

"However," said Tsing, "if it's introduced quietly and the changes happen slowly, there won't even be a war. Not the kind you can lose."

Captain Tsing and her crew were nobody's tame lap dogs. Not the First Estate's and not Jupiter's, really. Not like the alcazar staff. But they were with her.

# # #

The next morning, Jupiter and Mom and Nino were cleaning the Dunlevy condo with the seafoam-blue bathrooms. It took up their entire morning, because of the full guestrooms, but today the mess was scattered clothes and shopping bags, instead of drunken-party remains. The bridal merrymakers this week, going by the leftover packaging, had spent their way through most of Chicago's Magnificent Mile.

Jupiter smiled at it all while she picked everything up and folded and stacked. She had better shoes and bigger earrings. And flying boots.

That part was actually kind of fun, and when she got to the seafoam-and-mirrors bathroom, she hummed (Mom always heard her when she whistled) as she wiped all the mirrored squares and the two big mirrors and got started on the toilet.

Then a gray keeper walked out of the wall. Jupiter dropped her toilet brush into the disinfectant solution.

"Majesty," it husked. It wasn't standing on the floor, just kind of… standing on the air.

"Oh my god, what?"

The keeper cringed a sort of bow. "Majesty, this one speaks for the fleet. The fleet has come to a decision that we must ask Your Majesty…" It broke off, fluttering in place like a bad video. "We beg you not to destroy us in retribution for your refinery."

"What?" Jupiter picked up the toilet brush and backed up enough to close the door.

"The fleet is contracted to maintain your stations and factories in Earth system. The fleet failed to repair the refinery and its satellite stations on the biggest planet. We beg of you to accept our recompense and to forego retribution." All delivered in a heavy, scratchy whisper.

"Um," said Jupiter. Were they apologizing for not reconstructing the refinery after it had been smashed apart and fallen into the Red Spot? "Are you supposed to work in ammonia and methane storms?" She'd read a lot about Jupiter-the-planet.

"We can configure for it, Majesty. It is one of our functions."

Jupiter looked at the skinny gray thing where it shivered and floated. It wasn't an Earth creature, but it lived on Earth, so maybe it could be a Jupiter-planet creature if it wanted to. Okay. "Um, wait, you said you maintain the space stations? Can you work in vacuum?"

"It is also one of our functions, Majesty."

Wow. They weren't just keepers, but _space_   keepers. "That's good. What do you want me to do? I'm not going to destroy your fleet because of the refinery. I, uh, there are mitigating circumstances." Like, she, the owner, had wanted it _gone_.

The keeper stopped shivering, but it did the cringing bow again. "Our fleet petitions Your Majesty to continue our contract or amend it as pleases House Abrasax."

"I'll review the contract." Well, Jery would review the contract and give her highlights. "I'll, um, delete the refinery from your duties. I might want more maintenance on space stations instead. How can I speak to your fleet again when I decide what to do?"

It pointed a long gray finger at her jacket with the sheaves and her phone in the pocket. Tiny lighting crackled and her phone beeped gently. "You may call upon us at will, Majesty, through any of your voices." It vanished from mid-air.

Jupiter sighed, staring at the mirror. She didn't look any different: Jupiter Jones, mostly a Bolotnikov, wearing dark jeans and a blue cotton blouse and cleaning gloves. She stirred the toilet solution, turned on the bathroom fan and opened the door, and got on with cleaning the bathroom.

# # #

While she was in the second bathroom, after changing four beds so Mom and Nino would be busy doing the kitchen, she pulled out her message sheaf to send Jery and Bob a request to re-evaluate the contracts for the keepers' fleet and for Lyrica Daelos. And to confirm that monitor ships would patrol all the inhabited planets' systems she owned. And could they draft the documents for the Maximilian Observatory Fund? She'd ping Jery in the evening to answer questions.

Then she sent a message to Administrator Halan asking for a status report on the Abrasax facilities in the system that weren't on Earth. What was under-capacity, or over-capacity, or needed refurbishing? She could say she was just practicing oversight.

Never mind a house for Uncle Vassily or even a designer dress. By now Jupiter just wanted a lazy day without any interruptions so she could buy Caine a hot dog and watch him eat it, and grin at him.

# # #

In the afternoon, when they were done with the other large house that took four hours, Jupiter told Mom that she wanted to stay in Lincoln Park, and she'd come home in time for dinner. Mom said, "Promise you'll eat dinner and sleep at home?"

"Yes, Mom. I know tomorrow's an early work day."

"You're a good girl, and I love you." This was in Russian.

Jupiter ducked her head, embarrassed but happy. "Love you, Mom."

Then she could walk into the green park where the muggy outdoor air was a little cooler near the lake, looking for an unpeopled cluster of trees. She sat down and pinged Jery and Bob, using a voice-and-video connection, not holo. People who saw her just talking on a "phone" wouldn't think it was odd, and just in case, she could see Leon about four clumps of trees over, "blending in" with a pair of birding binoculars. If she signaled, he'd trot over in pursuit of a spotted pigeon or whatever and run off any nosy eavesdroppers.

"Good afternoon, Ma'am," said two android voices, one grave, one perky. Bob wore a new suit in Abrasax gray, but otherwise looked exactly the same. Did androids age?

Bob gave Jupiter a list of the important contract points while Jery used an occasional, almost human, "h'mp" in the background. Lyrica Daelos' contract was, Bob said, "routine," and work on customized splices for Her Majesty would justify more generous compensation. Good. The keepers' fleet contract only required an amendment about the duties. She'd have to come up to the ship to seal both revised contracts, at her convenience.

The summary of keepers' duties made her curious. Jupiter asked, "Does the contract only say the keeper fleet maintains the space stations in this system, or do they build them?"

"Their contract includes construction of stations built into asteroids and other bodies, as well as on planets," said Bob.

"You mean, I could ask them to make a space station for me?"

"You'd have to designate an asteroid or moon to base it on, and furnish the materials and building plans. The keepers would build it."

"Huh," said Jupiter. "How much would all that cost?"

"More than rebuilding a portion of the city of Chicago, which is a significant item in the current budget," said Bob.

"Ouch."

"The sum is well within your income on Earth. It's a matter of replacing materials stores, not an emergency."

Jery said, "You may draw on income from other Abrasax properties, if necessary, but for Earth it is not usual to need to do so."

"How does Abrasax pay for the monitor ships I've sent to the Terrsie planet systems?"

"Abrasax Industries maintains a fleet of ships as ferries and monitors and couriers. The expenses for ship use may rise, but not significantly."

Jupiter wondered how that worked, and decided not to ask yet. If Abrasax Industries was primarily a Regenex operation, maybe she was good with using its money to protect planets from being harvested. "Okay," she said. "Also, I want to know what money Abrasax has on Earth, and how I can use it."

Bob said, "Abrasax funds on Earth are carried as accounts in a number of different banking houses. The details are complex."

Jery h'mped, and said, "We'll answer any questions you have at any time, but the whole of it could take a number of hours."

Jupiter, very aware of the sun sliding down the western sky, said, "Can you send me an overview to study tonight, with notes on what you recommend I should look into first? Meanwhile, if I want to make purchases on Earth, is there money available to me?"

Bob's forehead, which had been showing signs of stress, smoothed out in sudden enlightenment. "You want to buy things for yourself."

Did Bob never buy things? Wait, were the androids paid, or just leased or whatever? They didn't have to eat or sleep. "Yes. I don't need money today, exactly, but I'll want to buy some things for me and my family."

"We can arrange your access to substantial funds. I'll have details for you tomorrow, or whenever you come to the _Lotus Blossom_   to seal the amended contracts. We'll also have initial drafts of the other documents."

"Thank you. I'll do that probably two days from now." She'd have to read the money-on-Earth homework, and tomorrow wasn't a day when she could skip anything, but Thursday evening might be okay. "I'll check in with you and Milla before I make any visits."

"That is never necessary, Ma'am," said Jery, grave and gray and Abrasax as ever, "although we appreciate your courtesy."

# # #

On Wednesday, she and Mom and Nino cleaned another condo in the same high-rise, and then a house and a new house, and that took up the whole day. No messengers portalled illegally or floated out of the air at her, and Jupiter even finished Jery's file about the Abrasax Earth finances. Abrasax on Earth, that was, _she_ , owned over a dozen bank accounts each worth millions (and millions) of whatever currency a particular bank used.

Well. She'd kind of figured there had to be something like this, but having it in numbers on a sheaf was different. There was a British bank with a hundred million pounds, mostly in investment accounts. A Swiss bank, two U.S. banks, an Indian bank, a Japanese bank… Jery had included several suggestions for more detailed study, including, okay, space station costs for building, maintenance and staffing. That was definitely next.

Abrasax Industries in the recent past had spent various millions, mostly for… metals and stone and silica and plastics. For the keepers to reconstruct buildings, she guessed. And, maybe, for space stations. If they'd built that monster of a Gothic refinery on Jupiter-the-planet, it must have bumped up the average expenses a lot.

Where had the money come from? The file's broad-stroke descriptions gave present status for about a decade, but no further history.

Jery also recommended a review of other Abrasax finances, "for context," perhaps starting with Alcazar Aristaios. That might even tell her how and how much the staff were paid. She sent Jery a message asking for that and the space station costs for her next reading.

# # #

Thursday was a three-house day, but with an hour's break after the first and largest. For lunch, Nino unpacked beet-pink beef sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs and grapes on two shaded benches in the narrow park along Milwaukee Avenue. They ate and talked, Mom and Nino in Russian, Jupiter mostly in Russian.

After a half-hour, when they wanted to ask her about Caine, Jupiter said, "Please, I can't talk about him yet," and retreated to an isolated bench with her phone and sheaves.

Halan had provided descriptions of all the surviving Abrasax space stations, including the two Balem had closed down. Jupiter forwarded the list to Lyrica, with a note that it was possibly useful information and they could talk later, just to check in.

She sent messages to Milla and the advocates and to Caine, that she hoped to visit the _Lotus Blossom_   for business and an informal supper in the evening. Would Caine join her? Two minutes later the sheaf displayed a reply: Caine would meet her and escort her and dine with her at her pleasure. She felt a smile, and some definite anticipation. She and Caine should have an hour or two in the blue brocade bed.

# # #

"The money Abrasax uses on Earth is entirely valid for Earth," said Bob, sounding a bit like Jery. "Lady Seraphi directed that when a planet's trade discovered a common exchange medium, in this case elemental gold, a suitable amount of it was to be invested through the planet's trading and banking centers to provide funds for future purchases within that economy."

"Did Abrasax just import gold? How much gold? When was this?" As high finance, it seemed a lot simpler than Jupiter had imagined. She could feel her eyes bugging out, all the same.

"It was done on Earth approximately three hundred Orous years ago." Bob made the tiny pause that meant it was checking a reference somewhere. "That is, around 1730 for European banks, and continuing into the 1800s as investment opportunities opened up. The initial deposits appear, in general, each to have been equivalent to," tiny pause, "three hundred thousand dollars in Chicago today."

Jupiter blinked. "So how much are they now?"

Bob handed her a card patterned in silver on silver-gray, with a Visa logo and "Jupiter Jones" under the number. "This Earth-technology interface provides debit access to an Abrasax-owned account of a little over sixteen million dollars…"

Jupiter blinked again. A couple of times. If Bob had said anything after "million dollars," she hadn't heard it. "Aaahh, is this the account we use to pay for the building materials?"

"The keepers' stockpile expenses are drawn from a different bank. The total of Abrasax accounts is very much larger, and it's held in several different currencies. It is well over a billion dollars, although much of it is locked into investments for future appreciation, and the precise value isn't fixed."

"Aahh, I see," said Jupiter, overwhelmed. "I think this will do for now. Thank you, Bob."

"You are most welcome, Ma'am. I will file the amended contracts." It picked up the sheaves she'd set her wrist-seal on at the beginning of the meeting.

"I, ah… Are you on my staff now, or are you on leave or something, from the Hall of Titles? What about Advocate Gwill?" Gwill was in charge of the Maximilian Fund and the draft of, as he called it, an heritance document.

"Both of us have been transferred to your staff, Ma'am."

Been transferred, hmm. "Do you like it?"

Bob looked faintly confused, but not unhappy. "I hope to give satisfaction, Ma'am." That sounded like Jery.

"I'm glad you're still here, and I hope Earth isn't boring for you, or anything."

Bob showed a shy, sly, android-ish smile. "Earth has great potential for confusion. I am enjoying it very much."

"Yeah on the confusion. I'd hate to think I'm the only one." Jupiter gathered up her new card, a pamphlet with the same logo, and her sheaf with the next installment of Jery's tutorial for a new owner of Earth. They all fit weightlessly into her jacket.

# # #

She and Caine ate a supper that included some food she recognized and some not and two indescribably delicious dipping sauces. Jupiter asked how lycantants felt about other lycantants, and listened to him talk about a world where smell was as important as sight, when he wanted it to be. He and Biron had quickly known that they smelled too different to compete directly, each belonging to different not-quite-packs.

"He's not working in a traditional pack," he explained. "Sergeant Agil has one of his original pack-brothers in the ship's crew, but they respect Captain Tsing as their leader while they're on the ship. My place is even less traditional but," he smiled at her with little-boy wonder, "it serves."

"What do I smell like?" she asked.

"Hope," said Caine, slowly, nostrils flaring. "Unique beauty."

"Oh. Ohmigosh." He wasn't like any man she'd ever dated. "Thank you. You—" She tried to put her feeling into words. "You showed me how to fly."

He looked embarrassed. "And for what it's worth, you don't smell like an Entitled. That is, Entitled have not smelled like that to me, in the past."

"Thank you," she said again, still sincere. "I hope that never changes."

Lovemaking was the only thing to do, after a conversation like that.

# # #

When Jupiter was home in her own bed, after assuring her mother and aunt that yes, she had eaten dinner, and yes, she was being "safe" with her boyfriend, she wondered what she might buy, now that she had money. Lots of money. She'd stopped at an ATM while Caine stood guard, followed the instructions, and had withdrawn five hundred dollars.

Just like that.

It felt good, but she knew throwing cash around would be foolish. The roll of twenties was stashed in her jacket, like everything else, except for one in her jeans pocket.

With the card, she could buy a Ricci dress, or a Givenchy or a McQueen, and she thought she liked Earth slinky over Entitled formal, so maybe she'd just do it. She could buy a telescope, but she already had one from her family. It was almost like it came from her father as well. She couldn't think of anything else she wanted from Earth right now.

She stared into the dark ceiling, thinking of the constellations Aunt Nino had taught her, set among the thickly crowded stars-in-space she'd seen for herself. Far beyond Nino's zodiac, someone who wasn't Jupiter's family (despite genetics) had bequeathed her more than Aleksa or Max could ever have dreamed of. It wasn't just the Entitlement, the portal-steps through interstellar space, the human robots and winged soldiers. It wasn't even the lifestyle more sumptuous than a mere emerald city. She had a chance to prevent wholesale death on places like Earth.

She was buying time to create a new Regenex. Ironically, she was buying it with Abrasax money that had to be from harvested planets. She couldn't un-do those harvests, but she could use them to stop future killing.

Learning to manage everything just in Earth system was taking over her life. She had to avoid questions about what she was putting in motion, especially from within Abrasax, so everything needed a cover story. "Recombinant Variations" was because she was infatuated with Caine. (It helped that she really was infatuated with Caine.) Staying and living on Earth was because she was sentimental about it after Recurring here. (Also true.) She might visit the space stations near Lyrica's laboratory a lot because she loved astronomy. (She'd always wanted to see the sky from the outer solar system, past Jupiter, past Neptune and Pluto.)

The Maximilian Observatory Fund would funnel all her property from Abrasax into endowments for the "Recombinant Variation" project, and if that didn't work, the Ministry of Titles would make all the titles to those planets simply disappear into a red-tape hole. Nobody would _ever_   get them back.

That made her giggle. Mom rustled in the dark bedroom. Nino exhaled a rare, soft snore.

They were her family. Her real family. What could she do for them with sixteen million dollars?

Let them all retire? Could she get her own apartment and "go to college"? Could she really go to college between learning about Abrasax and Orous? She ought to learn something about Earth as well. She'd have a year, or two or three, while Lyrica discovered the new Regenex that didn't kill people. After that, things would get busier.

She was Jupiter Jones, space queen.

# # #

This Friday they still had four houses to clean, two of them small. In the first house, while Nino was doing laundry, Jupiter re-made the beds with Mom. She took the chance to ask, "Mom, wasn't Max an only child?" She'd always called him that, when Mom and Nino did.

Mom switched to Russian. "He was. What makes you think about it, after all these years?"

"I wondered if he made a will, while you were pregnant."

"Oh, Max," Aleksa sat down on the half-made bed, teary-eyed. "He had no common sense about such things. I don't think he ever had a will." She sniffed. "It was a very unsettled time, in Russia."

Jupiter nodded. It must have been. She couldn't imagine being heavily pregnant — "as big as a planet," her mother sometimes described it, sometimes joking — and grieving, and afraid in her own home, while outside the new Russia was still half falling apart. Maybe leaving everything behind had been the only thing her mother could do.

"And," said Mom, putting it all away after another sniff and a near-smile, "you and I should finish the bedrooms now."

"Yes, Mom," said Jupiter. Mom deserved more than cleaning houses.

# # #

The rest of the day featured new sheaf messages every time Jupiter had time to check, usually in a bathroom with the smell of cleanser in the air. Jery sent a message about new Alcazar Aristaios business. Jupiter hadn't done the reading yet, but she'd have to skim it and then ask for details.

After the second bathroom was clean, Jupiter locked herself in and spent ten minutes on the Alcazar summary, so she had a chance of understanding what Jery would say. Maybe she could talk to him while she did the patio windows, like with Chicanery Night last week. This was getting ridiculous. Again.

Jupiter took her jacket and her pail and squeegee out to the brick patio with its glass walls, this week smudged with leaves instead of rain. She watched Mom with her dust cloth in the big patio-facing room, and through a door glimpsed Nino unloading the dishwasher.

"Ma'am," said Jery from her jacket, as clear as if it were with her on the patio, as clear as Marshal Ursula from Australia, as clear as Halan from trans-Neptune space.

"Good morning," she said, already swiping at the lower panes. "Please tell me what's happening at Alcazar Aristaios."

"It's a routine contract, Ma'am, for custom-created bees. I only bring it to your attention because an Abrasax primary must seal it. During your absence, Lady Kalique often did so. Perhaps you would prefer to finalize the contract in your own person. It is customary to hold the sealing at Aristaios."

"I see," said Jupiter. Jery was doing that thing of telling-her-without-saying. If Jupiter didn't want to share Alcazar Aristaios business with Kalique, she'd better go there and claim the contracts and do the sealing ritual. "You haven't notified Kalique of this?"

"It would only become necessary if you, Ma'am, don't wish to perform the sealing."

"Good," said Jupiter. "Jery, thank you. I'll do it. But," she grabbed a question from her reading, "am I right that Aristaios creates bees that respond to the client House's queen?"

She listened while she wiped away dried leaves and bits of mud, and continued the surreal conversation while she soaped and rinsed the tall windows. Aristaios, as a sort of House-within-a-Great-House, maintained a monopoly on gene-tailored bees, which occupied a crucial ecological niche in human-friendly bio-environments, which meant nobody seeded a new planet without them. Bees were a necessity, and Aristaios bees were a finely tuned genetic status symbol.

That explained a few things, she supposed.

The contract wasn't final yet, and Jupiter wasn't going to second-guess the Aristaios negotiators. The proposed bottom line, in Cs, made her blink. When she translated it into "enough to build a big space station, maybe two" she blinked again. "Okay. Tomorrow I'll visit you on the ship to continue this. Right now I'm pressed for time."

She'd nearly finished the windows. Mom had the vacuum out and would want her help to move the sofas. She started a final fast pass over the windows to finish them. "I'll need to talk to you about some changes for the Earth bank account I'm using, but I have to stop this conference for now." She touched the sheaf to cut the contact and let it stay in her jacket.

# # #

Another house, another bathroom. Kiza sent a chatty message obviously transcribed from speech: Her dad's send-off party tomorrow was expanding into a circus. He'd invited the Aegis cruiser's crew, and of course Jupiter should feel free to bring any or all of her Legion guards to welcome Captain Apini back into, as they called it, the real army. The Aegis called it the "other" army, and nothing in the gyre would prevent a great deal of competitive dick-measuring, in Kiza's words.

Jupiter snickered, but that was all she had time for, with the fixtures to scrub, and the counters and floor and mirror, and all the laundry to do because it was her turn. She collected the bed linens and carried everything to the laundry room behind the kitchen, thinking about bees. She asked, in passing, "Mom, have you ever been stung by a bee?"

Mom looked up from wiping the breakfast bar where the open-plan kitchen flowed into the open-plan living room. "I don't remember it ever happening. I've been lucky."

"Hmm. Me, neither. Maybe it runs in the family."

# # #

The last message of the day arrived on her phone while she and Caine were back in his eyrie room in the Sears-now-Willis Tower. They were sitting, Jupiter on his lap, eating pizza from the box and drinking the best red wine twenty dollars could buy from water glasses. Her phone sounded a tinny drumroll.

"That's Captain Tsing. I'd better see what's up."

Tsing took in Jupiter and Caine, smiled, and invited them both to an informal meeting in the morning, with coffee. Jupiter accepted with thanks, for both of them after Caine nodded yes, and put the phone down when they'd signed off. She leaned against Caine. "Everything's getting so big."

"You're important."

"If I am, it's an accident. My genes were in the right place at the right time. But things keep happening that I have to fix."

Caine, who was still on his first glass of wine, tasting it thoughtfully, said, "You have help. The captain, and those androids that know everything, and Stinger and me."

"You, my Skyjacker, are a miracle."

He shook his head. "I just tried to fix something I thought was wrong."

"Huh." Jupiter had had two glasses of pinot noir, and only half as much pizza as Caine. "Me, too." She put the tumbler down on the floor, next to the corked bottle and out of the way. "I decided last night that I have to do something about they way I work. I can't clean houses all day and also run half of Abrasax. I have a fortune on Earth. Ten fortunes. I'm going to figure out how to give my family enough money that we won't have to work. It will change things at home, but I need time to do this bigger thing."

"Your Majesty, this is only one more change in your destiny and your family's."

"I hope you're right," said Jupiter. "And I know you're right about some other things." She grinned at him and licked wine off her lips. "I have never known a guy who could undress me like you do."

"Your Majesty's wishes," he said, solemn but with a catch of breath, "will be my pleasure." He put the empty pizza box and his glass onto the floor next to hers.

# # #

The morning meeting started with Captain Tsing and Gemma, and Jupiter and Caine, in the Captain's office, which had been muted to solid surfaces. After greetings, Tsing said, "Jupiter, Ma'am, might I suggest that your project's security parameters should exclude, for the moment, the crew members you'll meet today? This is a larger group. Any of them would be trustworthy, but they don't need to know your plans."

Jupiter thought back to her previous visits of blurting out ideas and brainstorming plans with whoever she'd just met. "I've been lucky, haven't I?"

"I'd rather say that you make a good intuitive assessment of whom to trust," said Tsing, and her eyes and smile went to Caine Wise for a moment.

"Information security is difficult for humans," put in Gemma. "You're doing well."

Jupiter nodded, slowly. "I haven't talked about this with any of the Abrasax staff. Maybe that's intuition, too." She'd always had secrets. Now she had one more. "Captain, is there anything else I should know for this morning?"

"You're a very quick study, Jupiter. You'll do fine."

The Aegis crew were all happy to talk to her. Maybe they were indulging her, but if so they were doing a really good job. Jupiter realized, between meeting med techs and ecologists and a second Chatterjee who was Gemma's back-up, that Captain Tsing was introducing her to the Second Estate, after Kalique and Titus and Balem had displayed the First Estate to her.

She liked having allies better than being trapped and controlled.

# # #

After an exquisite lunch and before meeting Brea to survey Seraphi's closet for a suitable party outfit, Jupiter called a conference with her advocates. From one of the library's impossibly comfortable gray velvet chairs she said, "I need to give my family on Earth money from the account I'm using, but without telling them about Abrasax or space or anything. If we don't depend on Uncle Vassily's cleaning business, if everyone knows they have money to live on instead, I won't have to keep working in the business. I'll have time to learn about Abrasax and Orous."

Gwill said, tentatively, "It seems that your intent is to endow your Earth family with assets that will provide them long-term income. This is often done among Entitled toward heirs who are not primaries."

And that was what she'd done to Titus. Hah. "Yes. How can we arrange it… as if it's from Earth?"

Bob said, "It is from Earth. The bank that holds the Abrasax account for your use has an access, a branch, in Chicago."

Jery hmph'd and paused, and they all looked at him. "Advocate Bob has been studying the Abrasax interests on Earth to serve Your Majesty's needs. I believe it may safely advise you on this matter."

Bob gave the inclined android bow from its chair. "Ma'am."

Jupiter, despite Jery's restrained tone, understood that Bob had just been promoted. "That's wonderful, Bob! You'll be my Advocate for Earth! I'm really glad to hear it." She returned a nod of acceptance, and one for Jery. "I hope you'll keep on tutoring me about Aristaios and Abrasax as a whole. I'll need you more than ever."

"Ma'am," said Jery. As you prefer."

Jupiter looked out at the main room's viewscreen of starry space. "Bob, I need a reason my family will understand, to explain how I have all this money to give them. I want it to be a story that's mostly true, so I have some questions for you to research about Maximilian Jones' family, and about birth certificates and things."

"I look forward to it," said Bob, sounding sincere.

# # #

That evening, from the _Lotus Blossom_ 's grav-beam down to Stinger's farm, Earth was a curving landscape: sunlight sparking off the Rocky Mountains to one side, shining swathes of illuminated Atlantic seaboard outlining dark ocean on the other. Jupiter was almost comfortable by now with the sensation of falling, controlled and with Caine's wings and her own gravity boots as back-up, but _falling_ , from alien space to Earth, while she gawked happily at the aerial view of the twilit Midwest. Lights were coming on in Chicago, the entire blue lakefront springing into electric-lit relief. Wow.

Then the city was behind and farmlands were floating under her, toward her. Amid the squared-off patches, Stinger's farmhouse twinkled indoors and out with lights strung over the porch and around the front yard. The aging house had been reconstructed and was now more intact than before the bounty hunters had smashed doors and walls and half a cornfield. (The cornfield wasn't re-grown. Keepers didn't do agriculture.)

When the beam deposited Jupiter, Caine, and her guards in the mown-and-marked area in front of the house, Kiza met them and exclaimed over Jupiter's flame-red, off-one-shoulder gown (Seraphi's, but nearly slinky) and the spark-dripping diamond earrings.

"I wore the bees in Stinger's honor," said Jupiter, gesturing at her pinned-up hair. Both Phylo and Caine had recommended dressing up like a queen instead of down like a skyjacker. Jupiter thumbed a remote control for her boots to unfasten and stepped out of them, revealing flame-red shoes. "They're for you, too, Kiza. Caine said you're staying here with the house and the beehives. Is that still your plan?"

"You'll make it the shiniest party ever. And yes, I like Earth. I'm selling honey locally, and sometimes to the Aegis, and I'm trying out mead. There's a test batch ready to serve in the living room."

"You look great," said Jupiter. Kiza looked healthy now, instead of fragile, her blond hair and honey-gold outfit glowing in the porch lights. "I'm glad you'll live here. Kiza, these are Ron, Ozzy, Elen and Leo, my new guards. That is, my royal guard." Kiza gave them an approving look-over and a nod. Jupiter went on, "Guys, you came down with me and you'll leave with me, but in between you're on your own, unless Caine says differently or a situation comes up. Go check out the mead, or whatever." She waved them into the house and turned back to Kiza. "Who's here so far?"

"Most of the marshals for Earth are with Dad right now for the hand-off to Hugi. Some of his old Legion mates came in early and took over the kitchen. His new Legion team should come down later, and the Aegis cruiser's people are likely to start showing up any minute. The bees are mostly asleep, unless someone knocks over a hive."

"If that happens, should I exercise my magic powers?" Jupiter waggled her fingers in a bee-summoning motion.

Kiza looked fascinated. "Oh, yes, Your Majesty Jupiter. Try not to favor either the Legion or the Aegis. It's a nonpartisan party. Come in." She ushered Jupiter into the front room.

Caine, waiting inside, fell into step a pace behind her, which was reassuring even if she didn't think she'd need it among Stinger's guests. Meaty-spicy food smells emanated from one doorway, and Leo and Elen and a skyjacker in Legion boots appeared with platters to load onto a table.

Someone who looked a bit like Stinger, but taller and browner and female, already stood behind the beverage table. Kiza said, "Jupiter, Captain Rellen used to be Dad's lieutenant in the old days. Rell, Her Majesty Jupiter Abrasax." Caine didn't move, but Jupiter could feel him go on alert just the same.

Rellen's brown eyes started to roll, then went to Caine's gold-and-gray tunic, skipped to Elen and Leo in their tunics, and back to stare at Jupiter. "Abrasax? You're shittin' me." Her wings rustled in the uniform jacket tailored to disguise their bulk.

Jupiter grinned in delight. "No shit, unfortunately. But, Kiza says there's honey mead here somewhere."

Rellen picked up a highball glass and a tall pitcher, poured, and presented the drink, all while looking at Jupiter's face and hairpins. "Your Majesty. You a friend of Stinger's?"

"You bet. You?"

"He was the best damn captain in the Legion. 'M glad he's back. Only sorry I've got my own company now, or I'd go back to his."

Caine said, "Rell, you got a promotion out of it."

"Not my decision," said Rellen. "I just wanted to hold Stinger's company together. But you, you runty shit—" Her tone mocked Caine, but they were smiling like real friends, and Jupiter realized Caine must have known her as well as he knew Stinger.

"I know he went down because of me. That was his decision." He grabbed a clean glass and held it out. "I got his wings back, that is, Her Majesty and I did. Mead? Short."

Rellen gave him a quarter of a drink, and Caine held up his glass. Jupiter, sensing the moment, did the same. "Captain Apini."

"To Captain Apini, another century," said Rellen, picking up her own glass. They clink-clink-clinked, and Jupiter sipped at honey liqueur rougher and stronger than Medovukha.

Jupiter fanned herself. "Kiza, what did you do to this stuff?"

"It's all natural and organic. Honey from true-strain Abrasax bees, well water, yeast, and a little time. Do you think it'll sell?"

"It's good," said Jupiter, and sipped again. "It's got a kick _and_   a taste."

Footsteps at the house entrance pulled Kiza away to hostess duties. A moment later, Jupiter heard Captain Tsing's voice and some others. When a dozen Aegis crew appeared, they included Tsing and Gemma and some people Jupiter hadn't met. Biron Agil brought up the rear, with another splice who had to be his pack-brother.

The Captain gave Jupiter a formal nod. "Your Majesty Jupiter. I see you've met the Legion." She grinned a fierce, battle-ready grin at Rellen.

Jupiter didn't hear Rellen's comeback, because Stinger and four people in Orous-style formal dress paraded in. Stinger wore a uniform like Rellen's. A flurry of introductions followed, presenting four marshals for various continents on Earth to Jupiter, before the party expanded toward the food table and then into other rooms.

Jupiter, still sipping mead, found herself in a side room talking to two of the Aegis cruiser's engineering specialists. Pale, freckled Mr. Fredus was tall, and oddly long-boned enough that Jupiter assumed he was a splice, but she couldn't tell what of. She decided she didn't have to know, and just said, "Do you do portal engineering?"

"Ma'am, I'm the magneto-gravitic-differential sort of engineer," said Fredus. "Hersh, here, can tell you about portals."

A smallish, ferret-ish splice looked at her over a napkin full of roasted vegetable kebab and empty sticks. "Ma'am. I'm a portal engineer, that is, a portal philosopher. We don't understand the portal; we contemplate it while we're doing the math."

Jupiter was kind of glad she hadn't known that for her first portal jump. "Does it work?"

"We contemplate that, too. We don't know."

"Hersh, you're not explaining anything," said Fredus. "Ma'am, it's a kind of symbolic mapping that compares one space with another. That's all anyone ever gets without the math, but I could tell you a lot about gravity and normal space."

"How do the grav-beams work?" asked Jupiter. "Is it the same principle as the skyjacker boots?" Caine shook his head, and Fredus gave a low chuckle and began speaking in incomprehensible jargon. Maybe grav-beams actually were a kind of space warp.

About the time Fredus was saying, as far as Jupiter could follow, that skyjacker boots came from the Klingon Neutral Zone and grav-beams from Coruscant, Jupiter was distracted by movement outside the windows. This room overlooked a fragrant, dark overgrowth of flowers and weeds that shaded into a gray-green tangle and then into the trimmed-flat, lit-up green patch of landing area. A familiar column of vague sparkles had appeared, in which skyjackers, wings folded inside their uniform jackets, spiraled and looped down the column on their boots, dipping in and out of the beam. She stared. "Look out there."

"That's what I mean," said Fredus. "See, how the beam's smooth but the boot-forces are curved? The Legion are big clowns about flying, but they're good at it."

Stinger appeared from the lit porch steps, swearing in triplicate, followed by Tsing and two of his old officers. The new arrivals spiraled out of the beam into a neat formation and hovered above the ground until he shouted a command. Everyone landed with a thump. Stinger shouted, "Well done! You're lucky I'm not your captain until day after tomorrow!"

The dozen or so skyjackers from the new company traded looks and shouted "Yes, sir," in unison.

Jupiter couldn't spot a leader, but she thought Caine would. When she turned to him, he said, "Technically they shouldn't have done that, but if you and Stinger don't complain, nobody else will."

"You and I fly with the boots all the time," said Jupiter. "And you did more and faster while you were rescuing me."

"It's your planet. And that first time, I was working for Titus, so it was technically an Abrasax operation. Also, I had a very good reason," he said solemnly. "Your Majesty."

"Yeah," she said, smiling at him. "These guys are just showing off. We'll call it ceremonial."

Caine huffed a laugh. "That's one description."

Stinger said something Jupiter didn't catch, and Rellen flipped forward, up and over like an acrobat, and came down to hover upright in front of the newcomers. "Come in and try the mead," she said. "It'll knock your boots right off."

Jupiter's glass was empty, and she decided she'd better get in line for a refill before a dozen thirsty skyjackers drank it all. Instead, however, Rellen spotted her and shouted, "Your Majesty!" and all the new skyjackers turned to stare.

Jupiter stood up straight and let Caine and Ozzy, who'd materialized out of the crowd, stand behind her. "I'm here to toast Stinger Apini," she said, since everyone seemed to expect a speech, and the toast had worked before. "Are you with me?"

There were approving shouts, and lots more mead poured, and no one made a fuss about Jupiter's majesty after that, even if they used the title.

Until, that was, an hour or so later when Captain Rellen and Stinger's new lieutenant, Gherb, started arguing, with insult-slinging that sounded pretty sharp-edged to Jupiter.

She broke off a conversation with a marshal who was angling to find out if the new Abrasax owner planned to keep as many marshals as Balem, when she noticed Ron hovering in her sightline behind Marshal Lake. "I'll consider your position," she said. "The safety of Earth's population is very important to me— _What_   did the lieutenant just say?"

"I think they're just boasting," said Ron, who was holding three gnawed sticks that smelled like spicy-meat kebab, "but if they don't cool it, they're both in trouble."

Jupiter heard a hissed allegation of slow flying, with epithets. "Did she say he couldn't stay ahead of a shock wave?"

"They each think the other isn't as good a skyjacker. Can't fly as well, and all that." Ron was, clearly, editing a bit.

"You mean, it's a macho contest?" demanded Jupiter. Maybe some things were universal. "All right, I'll _make_   it a contest. Then one of them can win, and it'll be over." She saw Kiza in one doorway and edged over to her while creatively barbed insults continued in the middle of the room. "Kiza, can I give away a jug of your mead? I think those two should have a flying race, with a prize."

Kiza stopped looking worried and nodded. "Good idea. It'll get them outside."

"Okay. Caine, Ron, Ozzy, we're going to interrupt them. Make noise." She let the guards parade behind her, took a stance on her platonic-ideal, stand-up party shoes, and raised her voice at just the moment the rest of the room turned toward her. "Rellen! Gherb!"

Tall, brown Captain Rellen and tall, lighter brown Lieutenant Gherb broke off and looked at her, both breathing anger but momentarily silenced. Jupiter glowered up at them both. "Let's see which of you is fastest for real. It's a royal—" Great House royalty as individuals didn't order the Legion around, but she had a lot of social influence, Gemma said. "— a royal request. I want to see a skyjacker speed race. Winner gets a jug of Kiza's mead."

The crowd rustled a little. Someone said, "Majesty," and someone else said, "This mead? I'd race anyone for it."

"Yeah," said Rellen. "I'd love to show Her Majesty who's faster than who." She grimaced a challenge at Gherb. "We're in the same gravity field now. Let's see your wings."

"You're on," said Gherb.

Jupiter noticed Stinger at the back of the crowd with Marshal Stern and Captain Tsing, and looked at him, eyebrows raised, until he looked back. It was his party and his house. Stinger's frown didn't quite go away, but he shrugged and thumbs-up'd at her. Okay.

She turned to the marshals, and remembered that she should be using royal manners. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I request a brief task of you?"

Marshal Ursula, short, stocky and wearing hair short as a pelt, nodded. "If Your Majesty Jupiter wants observers with night vision," she said. "I would be delighted to serve."

Tsing said, "My crew as well, if they're willing and able." She wasn't smiling, exactly, but she was watching with interest. "Sergeant Agil is on duty tonight, but everyone else is free to volunteer."

Gemma appeared from behind Marshals Stern and Hugi, probably from inside the house. "My vision extends two orders of magnitude beyond visible light, if needed," she said.

"Both directions?" asked Jupiter, fascinated.

"Yes," said Gemma, as though everyone had adjustable senses. Like Caine's nose.

Like a lot of splices, apparently, since Leo was on Jupiter's other side now. "Ma'am, I've been spliced to have a night hunter's eyes."

"Umm, great!" said Jupiter. "And thank you, everybody, especially Captain Rellen and Lieutenant Gherb."

Half an hour later, Jupiter watched Gherb and Rellen lift off on wings and boots, for two laps around a course marked out by lanterns and observers with holo-links at each far corner of the corn field, starting and finishing in the front-yard landing area.

Rellen gave a fast rollover before her wings flared out. Gherb shot up smoothly, and both of them streaked for Leo at the first corner, at a speed Jupiter hadn't realized boots and wings could achieve. This was what skyjackers did. Caine, behind her, whispered something that sounded like, "Go, go, go."

She noticed Stinger, wearing a twist of a smile, on one side of the landing area amid excited skyjackers, and Tsing standing with the marshals who were the final judges for the race, watching as intently as any of them.

Gherb and Rellen made the first round in almost perfect unison, touching down at each corner, monitored by observers' reports and the holo-windows. After the first lap, Rellen came down in the landing area on her boots, but Gherb landed wings-in and upside-down, bouncing on his hands, then back upright in time to stay matched with Rellen.

Caine sucked in a breath and let it out in a whistle. "That's a show-off move, but it's impressive since he's not wearing gauntlets. Neither of them is."

Jupiter gaped for a second. "That's a style point for him. And if there are flying gauntlets, I want some."

"I'll see to it," said Caine, "if I can have some, too."

"Sure," she said instantly. It was far too soon to say she was in love with Caine, beyond lustful infatuation, but she really liked flying with him.

The second lap went just as fast, the flyers appearing in each holo-window in turn, landing at least one appendage on the ground, and taking off again. When they reappeared over the house, Gherb did a neat backflip and landed on his boots a full quarter-second before Rellen's touchdown.

"Dick-measuring," said Kiza, low-voiced, from beside Jupiter, who snorted with laughter while everyone else shouted and cheered.

After she'd checked that the marshals had seen the same winner, Jupiter's role was to say, "Rellen, Gherb, that was _fantastic_   flying! It's the most synchronized speed contest I've ever seen. I'm glad to know that Legion teamwork holds up no matter what you're doing." She paused and let the Legionnaires cheer and the Aegis applaud politely. "The prize goes to Lieutenant Gherb, by a split second, but the performance came from both of you, and I congratulate you both!"

Kiza, right on cue, stepped forward with the jug of mead held high. "Good health and luck to you, Lieutenant."

Gherb grinned, and accepted the jug. "Thank you, Miss Apini. It's a great pleasure and," he glanced at Rellen, "a good race." He made a quick, polite bow. "Your Majesty does us both honor."

She'd caused honor instead of disgrace tonight, because she was "Your Majesty." Maybe social influence was useful after all. Anyway, she wasn't sorry she'd done it.

# # #

Diomika watched Jupiter deliberately show off the title and status she'd wanted to ignore, merely to keep two Legion officers from making fools of themselves. Most Entitled wouldn't have bothered, but Jupiter carried it off like a queen. After this, the Legion would know of her and most of them would respect her. Good.

She'd stayed longer than she should have to see the race, but it was past time to leave good wishes with Captain Apini and replace Phylo Percadium on the cruiser's bridge. Gherb and Rellen both were the center of loud groups. People were calling Jupiter "Majesty," and Jupiter wasn't correcting them. Good.

She caught Gemma's eye and tilted her head. Jupiter noticed it too, and left Rellen to her friends' post-race dissection. "Are you leaving soon, Captain?"

"It's time. Gemma and I should both give our seconds a chance to come down here."

"I have a question about the Aegis marshals. If it's complicated, we can go back to it another day."

"The marshals?" Diomika glanced toward the crowd which currently included three continents' marshals.

"I want to know your opinion, as well as theirs, on whether I need them all on Earth."

"Ah." Earth was now a planet that _wasn't_   soon to be harvested. "It's your decision, like everything else. Aegis guidelines are that Marshals are assigned based on the population of a Third Estate planet."

Jupiter made a face. "They oversee the harvests, don't they?"

Diomika knew she couldn't and shouldn't dress it up. "Yes."

"I don't need them for that."

Gemma said, "The long-term marshals spend decades or centuries protecting the population. The newer ones don't have that perspective, Ma'am."

"Ah," said Jupiter. "Thank you. Now I get it. Gemma, I have to thank you again for being an observer for the speed race, and I hope you've enjoyed it."

"It was extremely educational."

"That's a yes," said Diomika. "She eats up data like candy." The two of them traded a look.

"I see." said Jupiter. "How long have you known each other?"

"We met as officer trainees," said Diomika. Gemma's unlikely friendship had been a constant ever since. "She's the best data officer I know of." Gemma shrugged to signal human modesty, but it was true. "I'm afraid we really should go back to the ship, if you'll allow, Ma'am. Jupiter."

"You're never going to get over my being an Entitled, are you?" asked Jupiter.

"No, Ma'am. You're going to be an important queen, the kind of leader Orous doesn't have in the Great Houses." She glanced back at Gemma. "That's what I see in the future."

"The captain," said Gemma, "is always right."

# # #

EPILOGUE

A few days later, Jupiter sat at her family's dinner table, hearing the vigorous conversation that inevitably accompanied Bolotnikov meals. Somewhere between the potato-egg-cucumber salad and the beef dumplings, she heard a lull and took the opportunity to tap on the table for attention. "Everybody, I have an announcement!"

Uncle Vassily, who knew something of what she was going to say, tapped also. "Vladie, Zeno, quiet. Your cousin would like to speak."

"My family," said Jupiter. "I love you all, and I hope you know it." She took a deep breath. This wasn't an occasion where Caine could be with her, although he was probably outside with Leo and Elen. "Some of you never met my father, Maximilian Jones. I'm sad that I didn't have a chance to know him." Her mother smiled from one end of table. Jupiter had talked with Aleksa first of all, earlier today, so she too knew what was coming.

"Because I have such a great family, I never thought much about my Jones grandparents. But, they thought about me. I had a message a few days ago, from a firm of solicitors in London, asking me to speak with a person they'd send."

Nino said, "Oh, dear. Did you go by yourself?"

"I took Caine. We met Mr. Gwill on Monday evening near the Art Museum in Grant Park. If a stuffy-sounding British lawyer wanted to speak with me, for real, on behalf of a Jones estate, I wanted to know about it.

"He said Juliana Jones had been concerned that her son Maximilian's wife and child had disappeared after his death. The searching she did at the time never found us, but when she died last year, she left money to me, if I was alive, and instructions to keep searching. The firm wanted a DNA sample for paternity testing. So I gave them one. And it matched with the record of Max's DNA."

Aleksa managed to look insulted. "I could have told them that." She looked around the table. "What? You think Jupiter was born from egg? No, this is real life."

Jupiter grinned down the table. "Then I met with Mr. Benjamin today, who's a U.S. lawyer, and we spent _hours_   at a bank."

"Oh," said Aleksa. "You said you were with Caine!"

"Caine was with me," said Jupiter. In actuality, she and Gwill and Bob had worked out the story. Bob had sent a message from "Abrasax," with appropriate recognition codes, to the law firm that handled the Abrasax money in the U.S. "Abrasax" had been, staggeringly, the actual name on the account. She and Caine had met Mr. Benjamin (who really was a U.S. lawyer), and he'd been very careful to make sure Jupiter got exactly what she wanted.

The others around the table had been listening, but now Mikka and Nino, both wide-eyed, burst out, "How much—" "Is it in—" "money—" "real dollars?"

"It's real money," said Jupiter. "It's in dollars now. It's really a lot. A responsibility."

This made everyone subside into speculative looks. How much money was a responsibility instead of a boon?

"It's so much that I had it put into three new accounts. It's only right that a share of it belongs to my mother—"

Mom said "Oh!" and got teary-eyed at Jupiter. Again. Nino said, "Ooohh!" and embraced Mom, and jumped up to embrace Jupiter.

It was a good moment, but Jupiter tapped on the table again afterward. "Mom, you totally deserve it, and I know you and Nino are a team." She took another deep breath and looked around the table. "I'm sure the whole family will agree that it's right that I give a share to my Uncle Vassily, who welcomed me when I was a week old and raised me like a father."

Vassily tried to pretend he wasn't teary-eyed, and so didn't say anything, but he turned very pink and raised his wineglass in Jupiter's direction. Aunt Irina looked from him to Jupiter and said, "But how much?"

"Enough to buy the house. Enough that you won't have to run the business if you don't want to. Each share is in the millions of dollars. About five millions."

Vassily coughed, eyes wide, and then said, "Speak English, Jupiter. I didn't understand the 'millions' part."

Everyone laughed, verging on hysteria. Uncle Zeno swore in Russian. Uncle Vassily replied in Russian. Vladie sputtered a lot of Anglo-Saxon words that were lost in the uproar, fortunately.

"What about your boyfriend?" asked Mikka, when the uproar had quieted a little. "What does he think?"

"He's happy for me. If I ask him to live with me, I think he'd say yes."

"Don't be hasty," said Uncle Vassily. "You have a share of this money for yourself, another five million, right? It's safe in the bank, too?"

"Yes," said Jupiter. "I want to go to college and study astronomy. I don't want to leave you, not altogether, but I want to learn about… the universe I can see in the telescope."

"Oh!" said Mom, and began crying again. "Yes, my Jupiter. You should do that."

Vassily looked from his happily weeping cousin to Jupiter, tried on the face of a Russian father and then shrugged. "You are smart women, both of you. I could make a fuss about this, but I couldn't win." He tried on a stern look. "I hope to meet your young man, however."

"I'll bring him to dinner soon," said Jupiter. "You'll like him."

"Is he good to you?"

Jupiter smiled. "He treats me like a queen."

# # #


End file.
